Her Magic Forms A Flame
by BlackRoseRed92
Summary: A third school and legendary guests are introduced to Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament. As Harry begins to become close to one young witch in particular, he isn't aware of the dark forces rising in the shadows. Demons and Death Eaters are beginning to form alliances, and unknowingly, Harry is forming his. HPXCharmed. GoF.
1. Dreams Are Made of This

Dreams Are Made of This

She walked toward the bright green light that had come from the room upstairs. She smirked slightly, knowing that that fool of a caretaker had finally let curiosity get the best of him. As she entered the room she walked over the body of the old man, ignoring it as if it were a simple bump on the wooden floor. She turned toward the chair in the middle of the room and bowed.

"My lord, it is ready." She held out her hand, which held a small glass bottle, filled to the brim with a clear violet liquid.

"Every ingredient?" A raspy voice replied from the bundle of cloth on the chair.

She nodded, keeping her eyes to the floor, "And the hemlock root was added by myself this morning." She heard the sound of footsteps come up behind her, but didn't dare look for she had yet to be dismissed. She had an idea who it was anyways.

"Excellent. You are free to go. Make sure to be ready when the time comes." She stood up with a quiet 'Yes, my lord' and turned, an evil look in her brown eyes, a deep smirk on her pale face as she walked out of the room. Bright flames licked up her body and a second later she was gone.

A short, rat of a man walked over to close the door and turned around. He trembled as the huge snake on the floor slithered past him. He looked up as a thin, stick like arm moved out of the cloth on the chair and watched as it held out the potion to a man kneeling beside the chair. The man grabbed it, bowed his head and stood up.

"Shall I start the next phase, my lord?" The man asked, his tongue quickly darting out of his mouth before disappearing.

"Yes. This vial shall be held by you for safe keeping. When it is time Wormtail will know what to do. Do _not _fail me." He threatened. The short man, Wormtail, moved from the door to the center of the room. A dark chuckle sounded from the chair, in which both men were staring at.

"It shall be done this year. That fool will never see what is coming."

* * *

Melinda Halliwell awoke with a start, staring around her room which was lit up by the bright California sun. 'So much for a nap' she thought to herself, before her thoughts went back to her dream. She couldn't recall much, since the dream – or nightmare- was slipping away from her. She did remember an older woman with dark short hair, smirking, and a voice stating that it would be done this year and someone wouldn't see it coming. She sat up in bed for a moment, wondering why the dream seemed so real. She didn't have visions, hell she could barely tell what the weather was going to be like that day. But before she could dwell on the dream any longer, a knock came to her door.

"Melinda, honey," her door opened, revealing a short, older woman with a sheet of long, brown hair running down her back, "I've made some sandwiches for lunch."

Melinda smiled before replying, "Yeah, Mom, I'll be right there."

Her mother, Piper Halliwell, smiled brightly before adding, "And could you get your brothers? They should be in the attic working on something."

Melinda looked at her mother questioningly.

Piper replied, "I don't really want to know, so I'm not going to ask. Knowing them, it's something I've told them not to do." She laughed and walked downstairs.

Melinda sighed and walked upstairs to the attic. She heard a loud bang and ran the rest of the way up.

"Wyatt! I told you that was too much toad paste!"

"You told me it might make the potion stronger!"

"I said might! Not that it actually would!" Chris groaned and grabbed a towel to clean off his shirt. He looked up to find his younger sister leaning against the doorway, smirking at him.

"Shut up Melinda." He grumbled. She walked over to pick up a chair that had fallen over during the explosion.

"I'm not saying anything. I just came up here to tell you Mom made lunch downstairs… And that she was probably right about her not wanting to see what you guys were up to because had she just witnessed this," she waved her hands around, to indicate the mess in the room, "she'd probably kill you." She paused. "Never mind. She _would _kill you." Chris rolled his eyes and continued to clean his shirt, his brown hair falling into his eyes.

She looked over from her older brother over to her oldest brother, his blonde hair bright in the sun, and his blue eyes surveying the room. She heard him mumbling words to himself but before she could ask him to repeat what he had said, the room was filled with a bright silvery haze before appearing as it once was before the explosion, clean and with everything in its place.

Chris looked up from his shirt, the stain still intact.

"Great, now if you can just clean my shirt –"

"Nuh uh, no way little brother. I just saved us both, the least you could do is wash your own shirt." Wyatt told him, ruffling Chris' hair before heading downstairs to his mother's delicious food. Melinda turned to follow him allowing a giggle to escape from her. Chris looked at his shirt before letting out a sigh and grabbed a jacket to cover the stain, before hurrying to join his family downstairs.

* * *

Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt had endured a lot together. From getting together, to losing each other, from being an angel to becoming a mortal, it was a lot anyone had to deal with. They had their fair share of demons, both literally and not, but they were happy with how they were now. They lived in Piper's childhood home, otherwise established as Halliwell Manor, and had three beautiful children. The only downside was since they had powerful children, they had to be the ones to pick up the magical fight Piper and her sisters, Phoebe and Paige, had left behind.

Piper sighed as her children came bounding down the stairs.

The first she saw was Wyatt. He was the one who took the most after his father. He was a tall 18 year old, with blonde hair and blue eyes. However although very powerful, he had his father's calm nature, always trying to help those in need, and always had a clear and straight head on his shoulders.

Chris came shortly after, and after being teased so much, she finally came to except that Chris took after her, crazy attitude and all. He had brown hair and blue eyes (from his father). Chris was probably the best of her children when it came to potions and spell making. She guessed that after all those times keeping her company in the kitchen and attic helped him get her talent for potion making. He was the more serious of her children, only letting lose when he was amongst family, but Chris preferred to stray in the background, observing everyone and learning what he could before joining in. He was the more calculating of her children and like her needed to figure out exactly what was happening before charging right in.

She then heard her youngest come in, mumbling something about Chris racing her down the stairs. Piper always smiled when she saw Melinda. Don't get it wrong, she loved all her children, but since she had first visited the future many years ago, she had known she would have a daughter. When? She hadn't known, but when she became pregnant for a third time, she just knew.

Melinda Prudence Halliwell took very much after her namesake, her Aunt Prue, but she was also the perfect combination of her parents. While Melinda had Prue's determination, she also had Piper's need to be with her sisters. Melinda was a very powerful girl and witch, but she felt the most comfortable with her brothers. As long as they were by her side, nothing could touch her. She had attained Leo's sense of helping the greater good, and sometimes that got her in trouble, leading her to save someone without thinking of her own safety, and it scared Piper, but she knew that's who her daughter was. And although she accepted it, she would always be concerned for her daughter, and her sons' safety. Her daughter looked very much like her, long, dark brown hair, tan skin, and dark brown eyes. Her brothers (and father) become very protective of her and she felt sorry for her 14 year old, but always was touched at the protection her brothers provided her.

She turned and found her husband looking at her. She smiled and then looked at her children, who were now gathering food and walking towards the table.

"Hey Dad, so when are we allowed back into Magic School? The school year is starting up and I need to check on the spells to the secret passages before the students start showing up. Can't have them losing an arm now can I?" Wyatt laughed and looked at his mother, who was glaring at him. He smiled innocently and bit into his sandwich. "Mmm, great food Mom."

Melinda looked up in time to see her parents glance at each other. Crap. This can't be good.

"Actually," Leo started, gaining his kids attention. He looked at his wife before looking back to his children. "We won't be attending Magic School this year." Before anyone could interrupt, Leo quickly added, "We've been invited to attend another magic school this year. As guests."

"You mean as Halliwells? Or the famous Charmed Ones? " Melinda interjected. She loved her family and the work they did to save others, but sometimes she felt that it was too much. Who, after all, would want to have their family going into a demonic battle every other day?

"Melinda, watch your tone." Piper scolded as Leo continued, "We are being invited by the Headmaster so that our different magical… communites could be able to interact with one another."

"Magical _communities_? What do you mean?" Chris asked.

"I mean that there are different branches of magic. The magic we have is Wiccan magic, natural from that of your family lines. This in turn limits you to having specific powers. The school we will be visiting holds wizarding students that, although do have natural magical abilities, learn to transfer that magic into wands by the use of spells, one or two words, not a full chanting." Leo explained.

"Then why don't we use wands?" Wyatt asked, intrigued by the prospect of new, well, inexperienced, magic.

"You could, but since your powers are more natural based, the wand wouldn't be able to handle it and you wouldn't be able to use the full extent of your powers. You probably could use a wand, but you would only be able to use the spells that were taught for it." Leo looked at his watch and stood up, walking towards Piper to give her a kiss.

"I've got to head to Magic School and talk to Paige so that Professor Leerin can prepare to take over some of the days we'll be gone." Leo said.

"Wait, you're the Headmaster, and Aunt Paige is Headmistress! Will Magic School be alright without you guys? Besides who in all is going to this school? And what school is this?" Melinda had been patiently waiting as her father explained that of wizards and wands, but she didn't like that she didn't know the plans for the next several months.

Leo chuckled and kissed his daughter's head.

"Relax Melinda. Professor Leerin is perfectly capable of heading the school for a while. And to answer your question as to whose going, it will be us, plus your Aunt Paige and Aunt Phoebe along with 20 top students from Magic School. Now I have to go, but we need to leave by the end of next week, so if I were you I'd start getting my things together. If you're anything like you Mom, then you will need to be talked out of what you're taking."

Leo waved to his sons and headed up the stairs, disappearing through the door that opened up at the top of the staircase, which granted him, the Headmaster of Magic School, entrance to the school.

"Wait, Dad never mentioned what school this was." Wyatt said to Piper, taking his plate to the sink and heading for the stairs.

"He said it was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… Somewhere in Britain. Either way he was right and you three need to start packing." She shooed her children up the stairs and started to clean the mess they had left behind.

On her way to her room, Melinda couldn't help but remember her dream at the mention of Hogwarts and Britain. How the dream was connected to them she didn't know. But she distinctly remembered that the males of the room were British. However the woman was American, and had flamed out of the room, indicating that she was a demon, and a powerful one at that.

But it was just a dream right? It couldn't have been real.

As Melinda walked into her closet and started gathering what she'd need for the next several months, she couldn't help but feel worried that perhaps what she had dreamed, wasn't a dream at all.

And it made her very uneasy.

* * *

**Hello! So this is my first fic, I've read so many I thought, hey why not write my own now? I've had this idea for a long time, and I have a lot planned out that I want to do, from GoF all the way to DH, but I guess it depends if yall like it or not! So please review and tell me what you like or didn't like. Or anything at all that will help me! :D This will be a HPXCharmed crossover and eventual HPXOC, but we need to build up to that! Until next time!**


	2. Gatherings

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize. It either belongs to creators of HP or Charmed.  
**

Gathering

Days had gone by and Melinda found herself in her room trying to escape the chaos going on downstairs. She loved her family, but every time they came to visit craziness tended to happen.

'_At least my cousins aren't here'_ she thought to herself. She loved them, and they were all pretty close in age, except for little Lila, but things gotten even more hectic when they were all there. Many magic competitions (unbeknownst to the adults, but she figured they knew about it) were held, and she held it with pride that her and her brothers usually won.

… But then that's when the _real _fights started, with shouts of cheating and foul play, and by then everyone eventually ended up being orbed to a different section of the house by Aunt Paige.

Oh well, it was tradition. And frankly, Melinda liked it that way.

She heard a knock and looked up to find her Aunt Phoebe peek in.

"Hey sweetie, mind if I come in for a minute?" She asked quietly. Phoebe walked in as her niece nodded and made room on her bed. She sat down on the edge and invited her niece to sit next to her.

Melinda felt her hair be swept behind her.

"I was always jealous of your mom's long hair." Phoebe chuckled. "She could always get it so long, and now that you wear it like her, you're just like her little clone."

Melinda smiled and looked at her Aunt. Her Aunt had the power of empathy, to be able to tell another's emotion, and usually it was kind of cool that her Aunt had that, but now it irritated Melinda because she would know something was bothering her.

"Mom sent you up here didn't she?" Melinda heard her Aunt sigh and knew it was the case. Melinda hadn't been acting any different since that weird dream, _at least I think_, but every night was filled with a voice shouting something and then a flash of green light. She had spent nights looking in the Book of Shadows (her families book of spells and demons) to try and find what that light could be, but she hadn't yet found something to explain it.

Phoebe had premonitions. Perhaps she could help Melinda sort this out.

"Aunt Phoebe, how do you know when you're having a premonition?" Phoebe looked at her oddly before answering.

"Well, I feel like I'm in a different place. The sounds are real, the pain or whatever is happening is evident, like if it's happening before my eyes. Why?" She looked at her niece, who was staring at the floor taking in her words. "Do you think you've had a premonition?"

Melinda let out a forced laugh, and replied, "What? Of course not, you and Chris are the only ones to have visions." She looked up to her Aunt.

"I just have dreams that feel very real sometimes." She trailed off, uncertain where to go with this. Sure she had thought they were just dreams, but her gut was telling her this was something more. And if being a Halliwell taught her anything, it was that usually your instinct was always right.

Phoebe looked at Melinda, whom looked so much like her older sister, and stood up, knowing that Melinda wouldn't elaborate on the subject.

"You're a very powerful witch Melinda, and your powers _are _nature based. Perhaps the earth is trying to tell you something." Phoebe told her wisely before going back downstairs.

Melinda listened to the leaves rustle outside her opened window. Maybe Aunt Phoebe was right.

But that green light was anything but natural.

She stood up and decided to head upstairs for a moment. Maybe checking the Book of Shadows one more time before she left wouldn't hurt.

* * *

The Manor's attic seemed to have a bit of history alongside it as well. In the far back of the room, near the stained glass windows, were shelves full of potion bottles, ingredients and books of all kinds about demons and basically anything supernatural. Coming back up, towards the entrance of the attic, there was an old mirror, a mannequin (for what she didn't know), many boxes, and in short, materials that made the attic… well, an attic. And in the center of the room held the _most _important piece of the Halliwell heritage: the Book of Shadows. This book had been through so much and recorded every demon or magical creature that had been (or will be) faced by a Halliwell. Melinda had read through it so many times she almost had it memorized.

Almost.

She wasn't like dear Christopher who, before his 14th birthday, knew the entire first half of the book by heart.

But before she could head towards the book, she looked to the antique couch just to the right of the Book and saw Chris with his head in some old book. '_Typical'_, she thought. Not that she hated the fact that her brother studied so much, but he could stop every now and then. Usually he took his studying so seriously, but he _was _a fun person. Some people just never really got to see that.

Melinda walked over and landed right next to her brother. She looked at the cover of the book. '_Magic among the World'. _Huh. Guess he already got his head start on learning about that wizarding magic.

"Anything interesting?" She asked him. He shut the book and let out a frustrated groan.

"No! There is absolutely nothing in here about wizarding magic except for what Dad told us. These people are real secretive about their magic." He explained.

Melinda let out a fake gasp. "You mean they don't try to save the world from demons every day in front of normal people?" Chris glared at her and she smiled, "Nevermind. But perhaps you could just be surprised once we get to the school. I'm sure they have a library there."

Chris stood up and replaced the book back onto the shelf. "Yeah, you're right. I think we should head downstairs, Mom might start yelling any-"

"CHRIS! MELINDA! COME DOWNSTAIRS!"

They laughed and headed for the stairs. But before they reached the door, Chris grabbed her arm and turned her to look at him.

"Hey, have you been okay? Honestly?" Seriously? Was it like a freaking psychic memo out there letting everyone know that she had weird dreams?

"Yeah. Just sleeping problems." She answered truthfully. _And British men with odd green lights that apparently kill. _"But I'm sure the fact that we're going to another school is also helping that out."

"Come on! It'll be fun! There's supposed to be some kind of game going on or something. I overhead Dad telling Aunt Paige that this morning." He grabbed her arm and started running down the stairs.

* * *

Downstairs, Piper was pulling a frantic roll call. She didn't want to forget anything important. Leo had just told her that the wards of the school were being let down so they may orb in, but was being reinforced once they entered.

In short? They were pretty much stuck there until the school year was over.

"Okay, should we bring the Book?" She asked aloud, while folding some sweaters for Wyatt into his suitcase. Wyatt rolled his eyes and took his suitcase away from her.

"Piper, it's a school, one of the safest schools. I'm sure that no little strange demon will wander into a fully locked down school." Paige tried to reason with her sister. Paige, although the youngest of the sisters, was given full responsibility of the next generation of magic (well almost full, she shared the responsibility with Leo) which including her family, so she knew how important it was to ensure their safety. Apparently this did nothing to calm Piper down.

"Locked down? Why would it be locked down? Did we make sure to check out the Professors at this school?" Piper seemed to be frantic a lot more than she was earlier. Phoebe walked by and swatted Paige.

"Now she's entered neurotic freak out mode!" She exclaimed, gesturing toward their sister, who was going through Melinda's things making sure everything was there.

"Piper, relax, ok?" Leo laughed and put his hands on Piper's arms to stop her from going through Chris' luggage. His son looked at him gratefully, and Leo smiled and looked back down to his wife. "Headmaster Dumbledore is one of, if not _the, _greatest wizard in the wizarding world. Besides, we'll all be there, so we shouldn't be in any danger."

Piper sighed and hugged her husband. "You're right. It's just this is somewhere we've never been before, what if we're blindsided somehow?" Leo nodded reassuringly, understanding where she was coming from.

"But we'll be together." They smiled at each other and he gave her a sweet kiss before turning around to address his family.

"Alright, the students should be coming in right now, and then Paige will orb us to Hogwarts. The wards should be opening up at the school and we'll arrive in time for dinner." He told them.

Wyatt stepped forward. "Wait, dinner?"

Chris snorted. "Of course, it's England; they're hours ahead of us, say goodbye to the sunny Cali sun, and hello to the gloomy weather of Mother England."

Leo stepped in before his oldest could reply. He walked up to the top of the stairs and opened the door that had just appeared there. A group of 20 students, aged between 14 and 18 entered the home looking around. Melinda didn't know many of them; sure she had friends, but preferred to hang out with her cousins. They all entered the conservatory and looked to Leo.

"Alright everyone hold on either to Paige or to Wyatt. Wyatt follow your Aunt and we should enter into the Hallway of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." They all nodded their heads and grabbed the hands of the person next to them.

Melinda felt the fluttering sensation from orbing and saw the blue and white flecks surround their huge group that would take them to this new school. And somehow she knew things were defiantly going to be different this year.

* * *

**So what do yall think Melinda's powers are?**

**Next chapter will bring in HP! And that's when it'll start picking up! The chapters will probably be longer since I wanted to introduce the Halliwells before we entered Hogwarts. I'm going to start working on it right now, and may get it posted tomorrow. Probably... Most Likely. :D **

**Anyways, thank you very much to _Rachel Eckstein_ for my first review! It's funny, that you're using Ayden cuz that's one of my fave names! And thank you to those whose alerted and favorited this story, maybe you can review also? :D  
**

**Let me know if you like Melinda so far, it's just the first chapters, but do you kinda like her, think you'll like her, or want her to be vanquished by a demon before they get to Hogwarts? Lol let me know! ****Review! :)**  



	3. Legends

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs to either the HP or Charmed owners.**

Legends

As she felt the blue flecks of light settle down, Melinda heard several gasps around her, and looked around the deserted hallway. She looked in awe as she took in the true beauty of the school. She always thought Magic School was one of the oldest schools around, but with the way this school was built, she may have to rethink that. Tall columns lined the stone walls. There weren't lamps to light up the hallway, but small fires set upon on top of the columns. She walked towards the huge glass windows and looked outside to see the dark night sky filled with millions of stars. Those stars were now reflecting against the midnight black lake that was between the school and a dark forest.

"It's beautiful here." Melinda turned around to see everyone also taking in the view. Aunt Paige turned to Melinda and winked.

Paige walked away from the glass and turned her attention towards the group of students.

"Alright guys, listen up! We are guests at this school, so no _funny business_." She turned to look at two older boys who had looked at each other and snickered.

These two, Roy and Liam, liked to get into trouble by using Liam's speed and Roy's all around good guy nature to trick younger students into being the end of some lame prank. The only reason they came along was because, although they _were_ good students and technically were supposed to go, she also couldn't risk Magic School burning down because of them.

Everyone else nodded and walked to form a circle around their Headmistress. Leo walked next to Paige and continued with his usual calm voice.

"Professor Dumbledore invited us here so that we may try to rekindle the riff that has happened between the Wiccan and Wizarding worlds. Many of you may know that thousands of years ago, those of the Wiccan and Wizarding worlds disagreed on a way of living. We believed that we should protect those who weren't privileged with these gifts, while they, frightened by the prospect of witch trials, elected to keep their magic hidden deeper in a place where only they may have access to it."

"Now they weren't selfish, don't get the wrong idea," he started walking in-between his students to get to the front of the group, everyone's eyes following him, "but you must realize that the wands in which they use held all their power, had they lost that, while they may have some instinctual magic, it be hard to defend themselves. Thus our two worlds became more separate, even more so when the wizards found out that we used our powers out in public to vanquish demons. They preferred to live a happier, quiet life with magic and we lived amongst those whom we could protect, should the need arise." He finished.

The students nodded. They all knew the history of course, however Headmaster Wyatt always had a way with words, and perhaps what made it even more exciting was that their wizarding siblings lay in this very castle.

The sound of footsteps approaching made Leo turn around. A thin, old man, with long, straggly hair, and a fairly receded hair line was walking, well more like _trotting, _towards the Magic School group. Paige walked up to stand besides Leo as the man whispered something to the Headmaster and Headmistress. Leo nodded, and turned towards the group while the man trotted back towards where he had come from.

"Ok, so they are ready to announce us. There will be two schools before us, and then we will be introduced as the 'Guest of Honor'." Leo explained.

"Wait," Chris stepped forward to his dad, "There are other schools here?"

"Chris, Dad _just _said that. You'd think with all that studying, you'd be a better listener." Wyatt teased. Chris glared at him before Leo answered his son's question.

"Yes," he turned to address the students, "Hogwarts will be the host of the Triwizard Tournament in which, as the title states, only the 3 wizarding schools may compete. We have been invited as guests to witness these games, and interact with these three schools. I'm sure this will be explained in the Great Hall later."

Melinda didn't listen as she heard loud applause coming from the room at the end of the hall. She quietly walked over and stood flat against the wall and listened in to hear a man announce,

"And now! Our friends from the North, the proud sons of Durmstrang and their Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff."

She backed away in time to see several young men, wearing maroon long-sleeved shirts and pants. They had heavy set boots, and some were wearing thick coats and hats, as to ward off the snow.

She watched as they marched in, in an orderly style, as they thrust shoulder length poles into the ground. The timing in which they hit the ground created a strict beat, and she saw the ends of the poles emit sparks every time they hit the ground. They then ditched the poles, and ran towards the head table of the Hall, in which the students sitting at four long tables, all in long black robes, stood up and followed the men with fascination._ 'Hogwarts students' _Melinda thought to herself. She heard her name be called by her mother and looked back to see her mom gesturing her to get back to their group.

She was about to head back when she looked back into the Hall and witnessed one of the Durmstrang students make some kind of winged animal appear out of fire.

'_Great.' _She thought to herself. '_We need to give some kind of magic show.' _She immediately ran over to her family and the students.

"Melinda! Don't just wander off like that! We've talked about this." Piper reprimanded her daughter.

Melinda ignored her mother (something she didn't normally do) and instead addressed her father.

"You didn't tell us we needed to give some kind of show for our entrance!" She shouted at him. Leo looked confused and Melinda responded to the group what she had just seen.

Phoebe suddenly said, "Well, all these schools are coming together, and they pretty much know nothing about each other. Obviously they're going to want to show each other up."

Leo looked at his watch before addressing them once more, "Ok, we need to star heading in. Now from what I understand we are going to need to make an entrance." He looked at his children. "And apparently they will be thrilled to witness what the most powerful witches will have to offer."

Wyatt laughed and stepped forward, "Then I think it's about time we showed these people _exactly _what the Halliwells can do."

* * *

Harry had been excited to learn exactly what Mr. Weasley and Ron's older brother Bill had meant when they said something exciting was coming to Hogwarts. After the events of the Quidditch World Cup, Harry was glad to get his mind off of Death Eaters, the man who had sent Voldemort's Dark Mark into the air, and the woman who was shooting balls of fire out of her hands towards tents. Hermione had tried many times to state that people couldn't throw fire out of their hands, and that she had probably just concealed her wand.

Harry didn't listen to her. He knew what he had seen.

And he _knew_ that the woman had looked over at him and smirked before disappearing in a flash of flames.

Before Harry could further dwell on the thoughts any longer, Dumbledore started speaking from his podium.

"And now for a very momentous occasion." The students looked up to Dumbledore as he continued talking.

"Now, many of you may be wondering exactly what may top the return of the Triwizard Tournament and the joining of our guests. But in bringing together our neighboring schools, I have decided to make a bit of a gamble and invite another school which holds some very honorary guests." He gestured toward the back of the hall and the students turned around.

Dumbledore continued, "Please welcome our Honorary Guests, all the way from North America, the students of Magic School, with their Headmaster Leo Wyatt and the legendary Charmed Ones."

The tall doors of the Great Hall opened and a group of students in normal clothing began walking in. At the front of the group was a man who wore a suit, but in place of the jacket was a black robe. He had dirty blonde hair, which was graying, and a friendly smile that reached all the way to his blue eyes.

Right next to him were three women, all whom had long dark hair and were wearing simple black robes over dressy casual clothes. They confidently strode forward and stopped just before the start of the House tables and smiled as they took in the Great Hall.

Immediately students from around them started talking in exciting whispers. Harry was confused and looked to Ron who was staring at the women in awe. If anything, he looked more excited than he had when Krum came walking through the doors.

"Who are the Charmed Ones?" Harry asked.

Ginny and Ron looked over to Harry with incredulous looks on their faces. It made Harry feel a little more left out about not being raised in the magical world, but then Hermione said something that made him feel better.

"Yes, who are they? I've never heard of them." Hermione asked innocently and then looked in front of her to see Ron looking at her with the same look.

"You- you don't know who they are? They're LEGENDS! They are _the most _powerful witches!" Ron finally exploded, and then as to add emphasis on this he shouted, "EVER!"

Neville who had been sitting alongside, looked to Hermione who was about to angrily reply to Ron, and although he tried to keep a calm voice, he too was very excited at the prospect of meeting these legendary witches.

"Don't feel bad that you don't know about the wiccan world. We don't talk about it too much. Something about Wizard pride, at least that's what my Gran had told me. Anyways, the Charmed Ones, well all Halliwells for that matter, _are _the most powerful beings in magic." Neville explained. Harry turned to see that Seamus, Dean and Hermione were all listening attentively.

Ron continued, calmer than earlier, but still energized with excitement. "The reason most people don't know about them is because only the oldest wizarding families do. They're a bit like stories, muggles who have powers that they then use to vanquish the bad guys so the world can stay a better place."

Ron suddenly looked excited again which scared Harry a bit when he shouted, "Bloody Hell! If the Charmed Ones are here do you think-"

Dumbledore started talking again, hushing the outbreak of talking that had started when he first introduced Magic School and the Charmed Ones. Harry looked around and noticed that many of those with old wizarding families were looking at the Americans in awe, even Malfoy and the Slytherins were eager to get a look at these witches.

"Yes, now as I was saying we do not only welcome the students of Magic School and the Charmed Ones, but the children of the eldest Charmed One." If at all possible Harry saw the students get even more excited and even heard a quiet "No way!" come from Ginny.

"Please welcome Wyatt Halliwell," and in front of the Charmed Ones a sprinkling of blue and white lights appeared, as if falling from the sky. Harry then saw a young man appear amidst the lights, with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and a smile, and immediately Harry thought, _He must be related to the Headmaster.' _

"Chris Halliwell," Again the same lights appeared, and this time a man who had the same blue eyes as Wyatt, but had dark hair, appeared just at the left of his brother, leaving a gap between them.

"And last, but certainly not least, please welcome Melinda Halliwell." As Harry awaited the same flurry of lights to appear, he instead was greeted with a swirl of gray/green wind appearing between the brothers. As a slight breeze was emitted from this, a young teenage girl appeared in place of the swirl, her long, straight dark hair slightly blown around as the wind shrank down her body and disappeared.

Everyone who was not familiar with the Halliwells, held their breath in anticipation to see what they did next. The brothers, as if knowing this, turned to Melinda and watched as she held out her hand and quickly clenched it into a fist, before all the torches on the wall and the flames on the candles on the ceiling were extinguished and left the Great Hall in the dark.

There was confusion, but before anyone could figure out what to do, the torches on the wall and the flames on the candles roared to life, having been replaced by a bright blue fire. Harry turned to look at the Halliwells and saw, to his surprise, that Melinda held her hands out and was looking at the flames.

'_She's controlling this?' _Harry thought to himself.

Harry watched as Chris held out his hand and the flames all seemed to grow together, creating a bright blue blanket of fire just above their heads. As the flames began licking towards the students, some screamed before a white blue force field appeared to reign the flames in. The students turned to see who had been the one to create it. Harry saw that Wyatt had his had slightly lifted from his side and cupped slightly as if holding an invisible ball.

One of the women, the one with the longest hair, walked forward and held out her right hand, as Wyatt dropped the force field. Melinda then quickly burst open her hand, and as the flames were quickly thrown apart by her command, the woman quickly did the same motion with her hand, and as Harry looked around he found that the exploding flames were frozen in time all around the great Hall.

The students of Magic School walked forward through the tables in silence, the blue flames giving the Great Hall an eerie blue glow. The other students, amazed and slightly frightened by the fire show, waited in bated breath to see what they did next.

As the students of Magic School assembled to the front of the Great Hall, Harry was able to see that his Professors were all watching in amazement, also intrigued by the Halliwells display of magic.

Melinda, Wyatt, and Chris once again stepped a little ahead of the group and one by one held up their hands to the bewitched night sky of the Great Hall. As they did this a hazy purple symbol appeared above them. To Harry it looked like three ovals forming a triangle, with a circle, placed just about the middle of the triangle, surrounding it.

"The Halliwell triquetra." Harry heard Ron softly whisper.

The siblings put their hand down, the triquetra disappearing, and as Melinda slowly put her hands down, the blue fire disappeared, darkening the Great Hall once again, before she quickly thrust her hands out, making the candles and torches burn with the same orange fire as it had before.

As the Great Hall returned to normal, the students sat in stunned silence before everyone, and Harry meant _everyone_, rose to their feet and filled the room with a thunderous applause, whoops of glee and shouts. Even the Professors, including Dumbledore had risen to their feet and were currently applauding the siblings, as they smiled at everyone and laughed at one another. Not in a conceited way, but more of a 'glad- we- pulled- this- off' kind of way.

As the applause was going, Harry turned to Ron who was one of the loudest.

"She can control fire?" He asked, having to shout a little over the still thundering applause.

"Not just control fire, mate! They nicknamed her Mother Nature. She has control over all the natural elements. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, you name it! She can conjure them, control them, anything!" Ron let out a loud whoop before sitting down and leaning close to Harry so he could explain.

"Since Wyatt, Chris and Melinda are the children of the eldest Charmed One, legend has it that they are the most powerful of all the Halliwell children. The blonde one was supposed to be the most powerful, creating force fields, healing, having a power that can wipe out a whole species. Supposedly he is also the one to wield Excalibur."

Ron pointed up to the siblings and Harry looked up to see Dumbledore greeting the Headmaster. Ron then continued his explanation.

"Chris is also powerful just behind his brother, he is also supposed to be the best potion maker. But Melinda, " Harry looked up to see that she was currently taking in the Great Hall as Dumbledore was talking to the Magic School group. He also noticed that the Hogwarts students had finally quieted down, but were chattering excitingly amongst themselves.

"Melinda, mate, is the source of so much power. Somehow she attained the powers of nature, so the whole world is her weapon. Legend has it that a powerful witch like her has never existed. She may be just our age, but she could take down all the Aurors at the Ministry in one swish of a hand if she wanted to." Ron then turned to Neville and began to join in on the conversation about the display.

Harry turned to look at the Halliwells who were just seated at the end of the Gryffindor table. As they sat down and started to eat, looking at the food that magically appeared in amazement, Melinda felt eyes on her and looked up to see a boy with black messy hair, glasses and bright green eyes looking at her. She smiled slightly and he did the same before turning to look to his red headed friend next to him.

As Chris and Wyatt fought over a bowl of mashed potatoes, Melinda realized she was happy to be here at Hogwarts. But before she could fully relish in that joy, an odd cold sensation flooded through her body and for some reason she saw the green light in the back of her mind. She ignored it for the moment and turned towards the meal in front of her and ate as she listened to her brothers engage with some of the Hogwarts students sitting at the table.

* * *

**They finally arrived! What did yall think? Did you like the explanations? Their entrance? Melinda's powers? Ron's excitement? :D**

**Thank you very much for all the reviews, alerts, and favorites! Let me know what yall would like to see :)  
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**Leave a review if you can, it really helps me get excited to write a new chapter :)  
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**See yall next time!  
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	4. Knowledge

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize, it belongs to either the creators of Charmed or HP.  
**

Knowledge

From what Melinda could tell, it looked as if all the schools were getting along pretty well. She was currently listening to stories being exchanged by her classmates and the Hogwarts students at the table, whom she learned were Gryffindors, named after _Godric Gryffindor_, one of the founders of Hogwarts. At least that's what one of the students had told her.

She turned to look in front of her, where four men were pulling in a golden 5 tier… _box?_. As they set it down, Professor Dumbledore began to speak.

"Your attention, please!" When he was sure he had everyone's attention, he continued.

"I'd like to say a few words. Eternal Glory. That is what awaits the student who wins the Triwizard Tournament." Melinda looked around and saw that all the students were looking on with fascination and curiosity in their eyes.

"But to do this, that student must survive three tasks. Three _extremely _dangerous tasks."

"Wicked." Melinda turned towards the two male voices who had whispered that in creepy synchronization. She spotted two red heads, twins. The one closest to her looked at her and sent her a wink, and then smiled to show that it was a friendly gesture.

She smiled back but felt an arm pull her close and looked to see that Wyatt had also followed her eyes and was glaring at the twins. They merely smiled in amusement, before they all turned their heads back to the Headmaster.

"For this reason, the Ministry has seen fit to impose a new rule." _Ministry?_ _They have their own government? _In a sense, the wiccan world did have to follows rules, but they were guided by the Elders, which were people who governed the use and misuse of magic. Our family wasn't_ too_ friendly with them, after all the stress they put on our family. But they respected our decisions and we listened to their advice… occasionally.

Missing the introduction of some man, Melinda turned her focus towards the thundering sky of the Great Hall. Students had started screaming, and without thinking about it, Melinda stood up, alongside her brothers and looked around frantically for the source of this commotion.

Before she could figure out exactly what was going on, and who she was supposed to be targeting, a stream of bright red light shot up towards the ceiling, and immediately the clouds cleared away. The students had calmed down, and Melinda looked to see that only her family was left standing, clearly having also thought that someone was attacking Hogwarts. Her parents and aunts sat down, and eventually so did she and Chris. Wyatt did a quick sweep of the room, before deeming it safe and sat down.

Hey, after being attacked by demons for so long, you'd do the same thing.

Melinda looked in front of her to find that her brother was staring at a man who had just come in. _Uh-oh. I know that look. _Chris was a pretty good judge of character, and when he was a bit weary of someone, he'd watch them, like a hunter analyzing his prey, before making his decision about them. And that was exactly what he was doing now.

She gently touched his shoulder. Knowing that he was now paying attention to her, she asked, "Who's he?"

"I don't know, but as soon as he'd walked in, the storm started. He was also the one to stop it." He was still looking at the man, or what was remaining of him. He had scars all over his face, an iron foot, and a patch that was holding in place a big, blue eye that was now scanning the place. She saw the eye stop to look at someone behind her, and then saw it eye her classmates and then finally stop at her and her brothers.

This one move instantly made Wyatt suspicious as well. "I don't trust him. Regardless of who he is, we got to watch him for a while. At least until we know he's ok." She and Chris nodded to show their agreement as they watched this man shake hands with Dumbledore and then stand off to the side.

Dumbledore was then joined by a different man who had a short mustache and peppered colored hair. He stood in front of the box and held out his arms, while starting to address the students.

"After due consideration, the Ministry has concluded that, for their own safety no student under the age of 17 shall be allowed to put forth their name for the Triwizard Tournament. This decision is final."

Before he had even finished the room was hit with outburst from the students. Many were booing, while some were yelling about it not being fair. The American students were looking around, since although many were of age, Magic School wasn't going to be competing, therefore it didn't affect them as much.

As Melinda turned to hear the twins yelling, "That's rubbish!" she was then greeted by a loud, "SILENCE!" and immediately turned towards the Headmaster. He then pulled out his wand and moved it slowly down the box, which began to melt away, revealing a big brown goblet. A blue fire began to emit from the top, and Melinda saw that everyone had forgotten their anger and were again amazed by the cup.

Yeah, she was amazed, but seeing as her school wasn't competing, and the same fire emerged from her hand, she wasn't too crazy about it. Yet, she still found it fascinating.

"The Goblet of Fire." Dumbledore stated, once more addressing the students, "Anyone wishing to submit themselves to the tournament need only write their name upon a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame before this hour on Thursday night."

Melinda turned to see the determined faces on those who wished to enter. But then she heard Professor Dumbledore give a final warning. "Do not do so lightly. Once chosen, there's no turning back. As from this moment the Triwizard Tournament has begun."

* * *

The next day Melinda woke up and found herself down at breakfast with her brothers. Although they weren't attending any classes, they were still expected to be up by 8 am. As she spread jelly onto her toast, Chris began to speak.

"Ok, so I did a little digging and that guy from last night is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. Alastor Moody. He's supposed to be some real good Auror, which is some kind of cop for wizards. But he's supposed to be crazy these days. "

"Defense Against the Dark Arts? That's original." Melinda scoffed, looking over to Wyatt's plate and stealing a strip of bacon. "So he's a Professor. We can't exactly suspect him can we?" Melinda knew the answer before she had even voiced it. "Never mind, so when are his classes?"

Chris pulled out a sheet of paper and placed it on the table so the three of them could see it. Wyatt pulled it close to him and smiled. "Perfect! There's a class that starts in half an hour."

Chris nodded and folded the piece of paper into his pocket. "Let's go now in case we get lost."

And get lost they did. By the time they had found themselves at the right classroom, the class had already started. Melinda turned to her brothers.

"And now what?" The door was closed and they couldn't hear anything from inside. Chris moved forward and flicked his hand slightly. The door opened with a small click, but it wasn't noticeable unless you knew it was going to be opened. They all clambered around the door, and Chris found a spot so he could peek in. They then heard a rough voice from inside the classroom.

"…here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story, goodbye, the end! Any questions?" There was no response. Melinda guessed that the entire classroom was too frightened to answer him, she knew she'd be.

"When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach." She heard footsteps from inside the room. "But first, which of you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?"

A soft, shaky voice answered. "Three, sir." Moody quickly replied, "And they are so named?" The siblings heard the scratching of what they guessed was chalk on a blackboard.

"Because they are unforgivable, the use of any one of them will-" she was cut off.

"Will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, correct!" Melinda looked to Wyatt and mouthed, 'Azkaban'? They just shook their heads and listened again.

"The Ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you're up against! You need to be prepared!" His voice got louder as he progressed. "You need to find another place to put your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, Mr. Finnigan!" Melinda snickered, before a soft voice replied, she didn't hear what he said, but the next second she heard, "And hear across classrooms! Not to mention know when three teenagers are hovering outside my now open door!" The three of them stiffened, not knowing what to do. They were caught.

"Well are you going to come in or stand there for the duration of the class?" The three of them looked at each other before Wyatt entered first, Chris followed and then Melinda. They ignored as the class watched them and followed as Moody beckoned them forward and then ushered them into three seats at the front of the classroom.

"Perhaps this lesson shall educate our new comers as well." He eyed them with a look that sent chills down her body, and then he continued to teach his class, not even acknowledging the Halliwells. She looked around and saw that the boy with messy hair and green eyes was also in there.

"So, what curse shall we see first?" He stomped forward then barked at a red head in front of him, next to green eyes. "Weasley!"

The poor guy was startled and answered with a meek, "Yes?"

"Stand!" And he did. "Give us a curse." He looked down then up again as he replied, "Well, my dad did tell me about one, the Imperius curse."

Moody nodded, "Ah, yes, your father would know all about that, gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why." He walked towards the front of the class and reached for a table that was next to the siblings. Chris was the closest to it and had a disgusted look on his face as he eyed the table. There was a very large array of glasses and jars filled with crawling bugs and critters. Moody brought out a spider and pulled out his wand from his pocket.

"_Engorgio."_the spider grew to be bigger than his hand and Melinda subconsciously moved away from it but was fascinated with her first look at wizard magic. "_Imperio!" _He pointed to the spider and it started crawling about the classroom, landing on people's heads, and the class was filled with either screams or laughs. Her brothers and her were laughing as well, at least until Moody held it over a bucket of water.

"What should I have her do next? Jump out a window? Drown herself?" Everyone immediately quieted down.

"Scores of witches and wizards swore they did You- Know-Who's bidding under the influence of the Imperius curse. But here's the rub: How do we sort out the liars?" He looked forward, "Now another curse." He pointed to a boy with short hair and ears that stuck out.

"Longbottom, is it?" As Moody exchanged some words with the student, Melinda found herself staring at Green Eyes. Well, his forehead, and was shocked to see that he had a scar there, hidden by his mess of hair. It wasn't the scar that shocked her, but the shape of it. It was a lightning bolt. How the hell did he get a lightning bolt scar?

Wyatt nudged her and she looked forward to see that Moody had his wand pointed at the spider and it was twitching. The boy, Longbottom was staring at it in horror, and seemed to be in some kind of pain. She looked to her brothers in confusion.

Chris knelt towards Melinda and whispered, "It's the Cruciatus Curse. It inflects some kind of pain on the victim. It's the torture curse." Melinda immediately became repulsed by Moody. How dare he show students this? Yeah, her and her brothers had seen people murdered, but these people were innocent, they didn't need to be exposed to this yet.

Just as she was about to stand up and stop it, she heard a voice yell out, "Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering him! Stop it!" The siblings looked up to see a pretty girl with frizzy, curly hair. She sounded like the one who had answered earlier about the curses.

Moody seemed to step out of a daze as he stopped the curse. He picked up the spider and placed it before her, asking in a low voice, "Perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable curse, Miss Granger." She shook her head, on the verge of tears. He took out his wand and pointed to the spider.

"_Avada Kedavra!" _

A green light flashed and hit the spider, making it go still. Melinda's heart stopped. She heard a faint splash and then heard something hit the floor, and she somehow knew the class was staring at her, but she didn't care.

This was the light that had been plaguing her dreams. This light was what she had seen when she had that dream so many nights ago. It was a spell, a real spell.

Wyatt shook her arm and she found that she was now standing up. She looked around the class and found the bucket of water by the window was on the floor. Apparently as a response to her shock and quick movement, the water in the bucket had exploded, which explained the splash. The class was looking at her, and she ignored her brothers' concerned looks before training her eyes on Moody. He had looked shocked at her response but recovered and went about as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"The Killing Curse. Only one person has been known to survive it, and he's sitting in this room." Moody had walked forward and ended up right in front of the boy with the lightning bolt scar. The class was either looking at her or Green Eyes but she wasn't aware of that. Instead she was freaking out.

The voices that were in her dream had British accents.

The light she had been dreaming about was actually the result of the Killing Curse, which these wizarding people used.

And the only one who had survived it was the boy with the messy hair, green eyes, and lightning bolt scar.

She looked up at Green Eyes and found him already staring at her, eyes full of confusion and slight worry. But as she locked eyes with him, she decided two things.

First of all, this dream was a warning. Premonition power or not, it was real. And second of all?

She _needed _to find out exactly what this guy had to do with it.

* * *

**Sorry it took so long to update! I was actually working on it all day, but I got distracted easily lol**

**Thanks so much for the reviews, favorites and alerts! I appreciate it, although I wanted to mention something.  
**

**I am a HUGE Charmed and Harry Potter fan. Saying that, it is the reason I felt confident with starting with this story. It's easy to write something where you know all the background.  
**

**I think some may be confused as to why Melinda has these powers, and I'm glad most of you like it, but remember we haven't exactly talked to Melinda about what she can do. Legends applying to the Halliwells is what has been stated. But, no worries, all that will be explained next chapter. (****It it helps, the next chapter is titled 'Legend vs. Truth'**)

**As a Charmed fan, I wanted everything to make sense, so be assured that there's a reason for everything :D  
**

**I was going to write when Melinda meets the trio, but the chapter started getting a little long, but I may get it posted tomorrow? :) Oh and I know everything seems to be following the movie (that's what I'm getting it off of) but separate things will start happening!  
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**Thanks for reading, and if you can leave a review, do it! It keeps me wanting to write faster :D  
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	5. Reasons

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators or Charmed or HP.**

**AN: I know I said this would be 'Legend vs. Truth', but it turns out that this needed to be written first :D  
**

* * *

Reasons

As soon as the class was over, Melinda rushed to find Green Eyes before he could get too far away. She needed to understand what the hell was going on and he seemed to be a good place to start. She started running down a very spiral staircase, and had she not been so determined to find him, she'd probably be terrified at the aspect of falling.

She heard her brothers following behind her, but ignored them because she knew they'd have more questions for her than she had answers too. She freaked out as she lost Green Eyes, but started going down the stairs again as she found him talking to the red head Weasley, and that girl Granger. She ran past Moody and Longbottom, before she realized she wouldn't catch up to them. As they reached the landing and she was certain she would lose them, she stopped and shouted, "HEY, WEASLEY!"

Figuring since Green Eyes was friends with him he'd stopped with him, and she could catch him before he ran away. Crazy? Well, guess what. It worked.

She watched as the three friends stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned around. They looked for who had called their friend's name before Melinda waved and started running towards them. As she caught up to them she saw them looking at her with curious faces. Well, Granger was, Green Eyes was smiling but was a bit curious as to why she wanted to talk to his friend and Weasley was looking at her with huge eyes and mouth slightly open. She normally got that reaction when someone was aware of whom she was, but how could they know about her? Weren't their worlds separate? After all, she knew nothing of them.

"Um, hey." She felt slightly awkward with the way Weasley was staring at her. Granger seemed to notice this and glared at him before stepping forward and introducing herself.

"Hello, I'm Hermione, this is Ron," she pointed to Weasley, and then to Green Eyes, "and this is Harry."

"Hi, I'm Melinda, and uh," she couldn't really announce that she had weird dreams involving the killing curse, and she _certainly_ couldn't tell them that she had observed Harry well enough to know about his scar. Unfortunately, Hermione misinterpreted her hesitation.

"Oh of course, you called Ron, we'll just leave then." But before Hermione could pull Harry away, she shot out and grabbed Harry's arm to stop him before quickly releasing it.

"Actually, I needed to talk to Harry, but I didn't really know his name." Ron seemed to stop staring and looked at her weird.

"You don't know who he is? Harry Potter?" Even Hermione looked surprised at the fact that she didn't know him. Was he famous or something?

"Um, no. Sorry." This wasn't going to plan. She was already offending him!

However, Harry seemed kind of relieved and reassuringly told her, "Oh no, it's fine. So, er, why did you need to talk to me?"

"Actua-" Before she could explain, she heard her brother's deep voice from behind her.

"MELINDA PRUDENCE! STAY RIGHT THERE!"

Melinda really had no choice because as soon as Wyatt had finished shouting at her, Christopher was pulling her away from the three. Harry looked confused as the two eldest Halliwells pulled their sister away. She turned to look at him and he faintly heard her say, 'I'll explain later." Explain what? They had never spoken.

* * *

Melinda found herself in an empty corridor before she was finally let out of Chris' grasp. She crossed her arms across her chest and watched as her brothers did the same in front of her.

She finally exploded, "What the hell was that?"

"What do you mean what the hell was that? What was that in the classroom? As soon as Moody had cast that spell, you stand up like you've been electrocuted and the water in that bucket explodes! Explodes, Melinda!" Chris was cut off by Wyatt.

"Our powers are tied to our emotions Melinda. You've always had a grip on your powers, but the only time you get a little haywire is when you're shocked, scared, or real angry. Now I know that you don't have full control over the water aspect of your powers but-"

Melinda cut him off, "What the hell does this have to do with my powers?"

Chris jumped back in, "There were about 20 students in there! What if you lost any more control? You could have set the room on fire, or- or created some kind of tornado!"

Melinda hadn't thought of that, she was too focused on the Killing Curse. She felt guilt hit her body as she thought about what else could have happened had she lost any more control. Wyatt, seeing her expression, put his hand on Chris' shoulder to calm him down.

"Look Melinda," Wyatt started saying gently, "we didn't come here to yell at you about that." Melinda scoffed, but Wyatt ignored her. "You've been acting weird since Dad mentioned we'd be coming here, and we've been meaning to ask you about it, but we figured you'd come to us like you always do. But what happened in Moody's class was too much, so we're going to stand here and wait until you tell us what's going on."

Melinda sighed and looked at her brothers. True, she always went to her brothers if something was wrong. With all that the Halliwells dealt with, the siblings usually told each other what was happening, that way, had some attack, potion, or spell went awry, someone would be there to back them up.

She hadn't told her brothers because she felt that she may be wrong. She was basing all this hysteria off of a dream. And yeah, her instinct was usually right, but what if she was blowing this all out of proportion?

She sighed, and knew that she would have to tell them what was up. Her brothers looked at her encouragingly, knowing she had finally given in. She looked around the corridor to make sure no one was listening and then started speaking in a low voice to her brothers.

"The day Dad had told us we were coming here I had a dream. In that dream, there was some kind of meeting going on between two or three guys and a woman."

Chris looked at intently, "What was the meeting about?"

"I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders, helplessly. "I don't remember much about the dream except that there was a woman, American, and two or three males, all British. The thing I remember the most was a bright green light that had killed a man. For the past several nights all I would dream about was some man shouting something, and then I'd see the bright light."

Wyatt was the first one to understand. "And the light that you saw was the one Moody had used."

"_Avada Kedavra, _the Killing Curse._" _Chris softly whispered, looking at the floor. He looked up to Melinda. "But how could you have a dream about a spell that we had never seen before? Let alone have it be from a completely different magic?"

Melinda shook her head. "I don't know. But the reason I went after Harry was because he was the only one to have survived the curse. Maybe he would… I don't know." And Melinda didn't. She was going after Harry on a hunch. He seemed the best place to start.

"I just- I… I don't want to ask any Professors about who those people could be because I don't want there to be any questions, especially ones that will reach Mom or Dad and freak them out."

She looked at her brothers who had calculating looks on their faces. Wyatt looked at Chris and then to Melinda.

"Then I guess Chris better head to the library and see what he can dig up about this Harry guy and killing curses. You and me are going to head around the school and find out about this world." He put his arm around Melinda's shoulder and they started walking towards the Great Hall. Chris started wandering to find the library, and she knew she wouldn't see him for a while.

* * *

A few days had gone by, and it was the morning before the choosing of the Tournament champions. Melinda was currently sitting in the Great Hall, going over some notes that Chris had wrote down about Harry Potter. As she read over them, she started feeling bad for him. His parents were murdered when he was only a baby, and from what Wyatt had gathered from other Hogwarts students, he lived miserably with his Aunt, Uncle and cousin.

Chris had also gathered information about a Lord Voldemort, whom was the reason Harry had gotten his scar. This evil wizard, You-Know-Who to most people, was an evil guy who killed many on his quest for power. He went after the Potters and when he tried to kill Harry, the killing curse somehow backfired on him and caused him to be killed, leaving Harry with the lightning bolt scar. Wyatt had also gathered from others that Harry, and his best friends Ron and Hermione were usually amidst trouble in Hogwarts, something about always ending up in the Hospital Wing. Not to mention a mass murder being Harry's godfather.

Jeez, no wonder the guy was famous. '_Hell, I'd be relieved if no one knew my past either_', she thought to herself.

Melinda looked up as someone sat next to her. Hermione Granger was opening up a big book and starting to read it in the dim lit room. _Great_, _I think her and Chris could be best friends. _She turned around and said, "You haven't by any chance met my brother Chris have you?"

Hermione looked startled that someone was speaking before she saw it was Melinda. She had spent all week learning about the Halliwells and was excited to talk to one of them, but her question threw her off.

"Er, no, why?" She asked curiously.

"It's just that he's constantly in the library and judging by the size of that book, I'm guessing it's supposed to be a bit of light reading?"

Hermione was about to answer and she looked as Melinda smirked. "It's not a bad thing. It's just refreshing to see someone besides my brother study like crazy."

"And I'm guessing you just have him doing your homework while you run around blowing up demons?" Hermione retorted before putting her hand to her mouth. _I can't believe I just said that to a Halliwell. _However, before she could apologize, she saw Melinda smiling at her before she started laughing.

"Actually I do my own homework, but I do pencil in vanquishes every now and then." They both laughed and Melinda knew that she had made a new friend. However before they could start a new conversation, they heard shouts coming from the entrance of the Great Hall. Melinda turned to see the red headed twins running in. She whispered to Hermione.

"Who are they? I saw them at dinner the other night." As they watched them high-fiving others, Hermione replied, "That's Fred and George. Pranksters of the school, they are also Ron's older brothers." _I can see the resemblance now. _She thought as the twins made their way behind them. They were showing off some new potion they made.

Hermione smirked, "It's not going to work." She told them in a singsong voice. The twins immediately gathered around Hermione and Melinda.

"Oh yeah?"

"And why is that, Granger?"

Hermione pointed to the circle surrounding the cup, "You see this? This is an age line. Dumbledore drew it himself." Melinda noticed six purple crystals also surrounding the Goblet.

"Yeah, and those crystals surrounding the Goblet? They belong to my Aunt Paige. She probably placed a spell on them so only those from the wizarding schools and those over 17 could pass." Melinda explained.

Fred- or George, she wasn't sure, looked at them, "So?" Hermione became annoyed and slammed the book shut on her lap.

"So, a genius like Dumbledore and a witch as powerful as a Halliwell couldn't possibly be fooled by a dodge as pathetically dimwitted as an aging potion." She scolded them.

The twins merely smiled before one replied, "That's why it's so brilliant, because it's so pathetically dimwitted."

The other one pulled out a small vial from his pocket and showed it to Melinda, "Besides a friend of ours, who is one of your classmates, kindly brewed us a potion to over go your Aunt's spell." He turned to his twin, "Ready, Fred?"

"Ready, George."

As they both drank the two potions Melinda became confused. There was no way a potion could overcome her Aunt's spell, especially if they didn't know what the spell was. As the twins jumped past the age line and crystals, Melinda heard snickering behind her and saw Roy and Liam looking gleeful. Of course, who else would prank pranksters, besides pranksters?

She wandered over to them and quickly asked, "What does the potion do?"

Liam laughed before whispering, "It's a simple color changing potion. Nothing too bad."

As he said this, the twins were blasted out the circle and when they stood up from the floor, they started growing matching beards and hair, both of which were long and snow white. But it didn't stay white for long. Roy and Liam's potion began to take effect and the twins had matching powder blue hair. The students watching burst out laughing, and as the twins fought over who would claim responsibility, they turned towards Roy and Liam, who were laughing harder than the others and shouted, "You said!" before pulling them into a wrestling match on the ground.

The fighting died down as one of the guys from Durmstrang entered his name into the Goblet. He looked at Hermione, lingering a bit and Melinda playfully nudged her, causing Hermione to shush her. She looked up and saw her brothers enter the room and went to stand with them, bidding Hermione goodbye.

Wyatt looked at the Goblet. "Eternal glory. I think I'd win that."

Melinda scoffed, "Eternal glory? Already got that." She laughed and then added, "Even if I don't really want it."

* * *

It was night and it was time to announce those that would represent the schools in the Tournament. All the schools were gathered in the Great Hall, and Melinda found herself sitting next to her brother. Everyone settled in their seats as Dumbledore began to talk.

"Now the moment you've all been waiting for: The champion selection." Dumbledore took out his wand and began dimming the lights in the Hall. He walked to the Goblet and as the fire turned a bright purple, it shot out a piece of paper which Dumbledore swiftly caught.

"The Durmstrang champion is… Viktor Krum!" The Hall started cheering, and Melinda saw that it was the same guy who had stared at Hermione earlier that day. The fire turned purple again and Dumbledore caught it again.

After he announced the champions for Beauxbatons and Hogwarts (Fleur Delacour, a willowy, beautiful girl who had most of the guys, including Wyatt, staring at her, and Cedric Diggory a handsome guy with a great smile and light colored hair), the Hall listened as Dumbledore started closing the ceremony.

"Excellent! We now have out three champions. But in the end only one will go down in victory. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory. The Triwizard Cup!"

Everyone started cheering as they stared at the cup, but Melinda became distracted by the Goblet, and eventually everyone noticed as well. It looked like it was going to spew another name. But how could it? The three schools were already selected, and Magic School hadn't entered. Had they?

She looked as her father started walking towards the cup, followed by Dumbledore. Melinda looked to her brothers.

"Did somebody from our school enter?" Those surrounding her listened for a response from… well, anyone.

"They couldn't have." Everyone listening looked to Chris. "It was charmed to keep us all out."

They turned their attention back to Leo as he caught the paper that had been shot out. He mouthed a name, and after realizing it wasn't one of his students, gave it to Dumbledore.

"Harry Potter." Dumbledore started looking around. "Harry Potter? Harry Potter!"

Melinda looked around and noticed a lot of the students becoming angry. Even the Headmaster from Durmstrang was seething. It took a while for Harry to appear to Dumbledore, but when he finally did, he was directed to the front of the Hall, to follow where the other champions had gone. The students in the hall were staring, no- glaring at Harry as he made his way to the front. Pretty soon calls of "Cheat!" and "He's not even 17 yet!" started making their way. As he disappeared into the room, she watched as the Headmasters and some Professors started heading back there.

"Let's go." Wyatt stood up and started heading to the front, his younger siblings behind him.

As they entered the old, what appeared to be some kind of trophy room, they heard the shouting of adults downstairs. They arrived in time to see Dumbledore grab Harry and start firing questions at him.

"Harry! Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?" Harry, terrified, quickly answered back.

"No sir!"

"Did you ask one of the older students to do it for you?"

"No sir."

Dumbledore shook him one last time, "You're absolutely sure?" Phoebe walked forward and put her arm around Harry.

"Of course he's sure! He's absolutely shocked that he's been chosen, can't you tell? So stop trying to blame him." Professor Dumbledore backed off, but Karkaroff stepped forward.

"And how exactly would you know?" He asked Phoebe, accusingly.

"I'm an empath, not to mention a mother, which means I'd be able to tell when a teen is lying about whether or not he's submitted his name into a tournament where he could die." She told him.

The tall Headmistress from Beauxbatons stepped forward. "But of course they are lying!"

"The hell he is!" Moody stepped forward, "The Goblet of Fire is an exceptionally powerful magical object. Only an exceptionally powerful Confundus Charm could have hoodwinked it. Well beyond the talents of a fourth year! Not to mention they'd have to find their way around the Halliwells charms."

Piper stepped forward, "Okay, everybody just needs to calm down!" She looked over to her children, not even asking what they were doing down there. "Did you three hear anything about one of the students trying to tamper with the Cup?"

Chris answered honestly, "No." Wyatt and Melinda shook their heads.

Dumbledore walked over to Barty Crouch. "I leave this to you, Barty."

He looked saddened at what he was about to say next. "The rules are absolute. The Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract. Mr. Potter has no choice. He is, as of tonight, a Triwizard Champion."

Everyone turned to look at Harry, who looked lost as to what had just happened. Melinda looked at her Dad, and he gave her a firm look and a nod of his head. He knew what she was thinking. This 14 year old was going against those with far more magical knowledge. In a way, he could be considered a Magic School champion. Because of this, he would have Melinda help Harry as much as she could. This is why they came here after all.

* * *

Later that night, in Albus Dumbledore's office, the elder Halliwells entered as the other Professors left. They stood around Albus as he stood at his desk. Leo stepped forward.

"It's as Phoebe said. Someone is going after Harry this year."

"And if it's anything like I saw, they'll succeed." Phoebe sighed and looked over to Piper who was standing next to her husband.

Albus sighed and looked over at the family that had already risked so much. He felt guilty for bringing them into this, but he had no other choice.

"Once again, I apologize for asking this of you, I've taken you away from your family and yet have also endangered some of your children." Paige shook her head and immediately started speaking.

"Please, Albus, this is what we do. If in fact demons are stepping into the wizarding world, we need to be here to stop whatever they may be trying to do."

"And if it's any consolation, I think the kids may be figuring out what's going on." Piper looked up to see the figures in the room looking at her. "I heard they were trying to find some stuff out about Harry. Chris might've had a premonition as to what's going on."

Phoebe shook her head. "I think it may have been Melinda." At the puzzled looks in the room, she explained their conversation about dreams and visions.

Piper was still confused, "But Melinda doesn't have premonitions."

Albus answered, seemingly always knowing what was going on. "Be that as it may, the world works in odd ways. Perhaps Melinda getting the premonition instead of Christopher may be a hint as to what is coming. It may mean that this is bigger than what we anticipated."

Leo sighed. "Either way, we'll be here to help in whatever way you need Albus. I know for a fact that Melinda is already going to be helping Harry in the Tournament."

Albus nodded, grateful to this kind family. "Wonderful. Harry will need all the help he can get this year."

* * *

**So I know it's kind of long. I was going to stop when Harry was picked as champion, but I decided I needed to get along with everything else. Especially the last part, it's important :)**

**So did you like it? Not like it?  
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**And I thought I should let yall know that I judge my updates on how many reviews I get. I don't set a limit (like 10 each chapter), but I just wait until I feel that there are enough reviews. And I didn't get a lot last chapter :/ Did you not like it? I'm sorry if you didn't. :(  
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**But please let me know if you like it so far. I promise that Harry and Melinda will actually converse in the next chapter. And look! It's nice and long and filled with lots of stuff! So let me know if there's something you'd like to see incorporated into the story. I will try my best! And sorry for any little mistakes in there, I am only human :)  
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**Oh! And who catches the little joke/line in there? Let me know if you find it! It be _totally awesome _if you did! :D  
**


	6. Legend Vs Truth

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

* * *

**AN: I'm so sorry for the long wait! I hadn't realized it been so long since I updated. I was going to update yesterday, and I watched DH2 so I can get a HP flow.. but I ended up just watching the movie instead lol But it's a pretty long chapter, so enjoy!**

Legend vs. Truth

"Melinda stop fidgeting, you look great." Melinda stopped pulling at the soft blue skirt and looked up to her mom, only to have her start fixing her hair.

"Mom, stop it. _I look great." _She smirked and her mom sighed and smiled at her. She looked over to her Dad, who was fixing the tie on Chris' suit.

"Why am I wearing this thing again, Dad?" Chris practically whined, pulling at the collar of his shirt.

"Because we are going to be interviewed, and since these pictures actually _move, _we need to look our best from every angle." He leaned in to whisper to his son. "At least that's what you mother told me_." _They shared a laugh and Melinda walked over to sit on a chair in the Trophy Room. Her aunts, parents, brothers, and of course herself were being interviewed by some columnist, wanting to see how the legendary Halliwells were finding Hogwarts.

Her family (and by that she meant those over 40) agreed to do the interview to 'show the world that the wizarding and wiccan worlds were forming a bond'. When she tried to ask _why _they had to prove and show that they were getting along, Phoebe had come over and started to see which outfit would look great on Melinda, completely ignoring the question.

Something was up. But Melinda didn't press into it so much because after all, she still hadn't told her parents about her premonition, and how Wyatt and Chris were helping her try to find any potential threats to the school.

So yeah, they were even.

And while the other Magic School students were hanging out amongst the school, making friends from all over, she was with her family getting ready to be interviewed by some blonde, curly haired interview, who she figured was probably going to annoy her. Rita Skeeter was currently interviewing someone… somewhere. She didn't care. But when she saw the odd woman, wearing a hideous green outfit, with thick rimmed glasses, exit a small room, she immediately became interested.

Why? Because evidently the poor person she had been interviewing was none other than Harry Potter himself.

As Harry exited the closet and went to stand with the other champions, Melinda thought about how everyone treated Harry at school.

There were many rumors going around that Harry actually _had _put his name into the cup. And since many believed it and were angered that he got his name picked, the students at Hogwarts ignored him, or gave him deathly glares, with whispers behind his back. They also showed, quite flashily, that they gave their support to Cedric Diggory or whom they called 'The _Real _ Hogwarts champion'.

It was cruel in Melinda's opinion. Didn't they realize how much crap this guy had been through? But they didn't see it that way. They didn't see Harry as a young teen that had somehow been thrown into many different situations helplessly. No. They saw him as an attention seeker.

Melinda still hadn't been able to meet up with Harry and offer her help to him. She tried to meet up with Hermione, but she had been spending all her time with Harry. The one time she was able to talk to her for a second, Hermione explained that Ron was mad at Harry and didn't believe that Harry hadn't entered his name into the Tournament.

Melinda looked up and realized that Skeeter had spent only about five minutes with the other champions. Looks like the article would be about Harry. Speaking of which, he was about to leave with the other students. This was her chance. The First Task wasn't too far away. She needed to speak to him _now._

She walked over to Wyatt and quickly whispered, "Distract them." Wyatt followed her eye of vision and saw Harry, and nodded in understanding. She ran over to Harry, thanking her Aunts for allowing her to wear reasonably sturdy boots. She caught up to him and grabbed his arm.

Harry turned back to see who had grabbed his arm and was met with a pair of warm brown eyes, that quickly darted to the crowd of people in the room, before meeting his eyes again. She gestured for him to be quiet and with one quick glance toward the room she gently pulled his arm up the stairs. Harry followed, intrigued but also slightly weary at the fact that Melinda Halliwell was taking him somewhere he didn't know. Before he could even question her, she pulled him into an empty corridor and led him to a balcony that had a view of the lake. Seemingly to be satisfied with her surroundings she finally turned and faced him.

"I know that this is weird." She started off.

"Kind of." He stared at her expectantly.

"Okay, I'm just gonna cut to the chase. Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?" She knew he hadn't, but she needed to make sure.

However Harry immediately became angry and scoffed before turning to leave.

"Wait! Look I know that you didn't ok? I just need you to say it to my face before I continue this conversation any further!" He turned to look at her, scrutinizing her. He was still angry, but at least he had stopped.

"No. I didn't enter my name." He told her shortly. She looked at him before sighing.

"Okay, then this will go along a lot smoother." She leaned against the balcony, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him.

"I know this is weird, but I need you to stay quiet and follow along with me ok?" He nodded and waited.

"I'm going to help you in the Tournament." She held up her hand when he opened his mouth. "Not like cheating, but I want to help you prepare for it."

Harry looked at her incredulously. "But, why?"

Melinda took a step towards him. "Because it isn't fair that you were entered, Harry. And frankly I think something's up if the famed Boy Who Lived is put in a situation where he is to die."

Harry stared at her. It be great to have someone on his side, besides Hermione anyway. But then he asked something that took away the chance of getting help from her.

"But you don't know anything about my magic. And it's not like you can do this magic... Can you?"

Melinda had in fact thought about this. But this is where her part of the deal came in.

"No I can't. At least that's what my dad said. 'Only if you're born to wield a wand, can you wield it.'" She quoted him. She shook her head, as to get back on track. "But that's not the point. You see I want to learn about your magic. That's why we're here in the first place, to learn about the Wizarding world. But there's another reason."

Melinda had thought a lot about telling Harry about her premonition. It wouldn't be fair to lie to him. He already had so much going on and he shouldn't be lied to. But that was the exact reason that she decided against telling him about the premonition. He was her age, someone who was just trying to be normal. And she wasn't going to try and make this whole ordeal any more difficult. Instead, she was going to try and make everything easier.

"I want you to tell me all there is about your world… and about Voldemort's." Harry looked surprised. But here was his chance to find out about the attacks at the World Cup. If he could talk to someone who knew up and close about fire magic, then perhaps he could find out who that woman was.

"Okay, but," Harry looked down, and when he met her eyes again he seemed to be determined. "You will tell me everything there is to know about your world."

Melinda was surprised he had agreed so easily. But it seemed fair, in exchange for help in the Tournament and information about his world, she would tell him all about hers.

She smiled widely at him, glad this had gone far easier than she had imagined. "Deal."

She looked around and then looked at her watch. Crap! They had been there for 10 minutes! Her mom was going to kill her! She started backing away, waving a quick 'bye' to Harry, before turning right… and realizing she had no idea where she was going. She quickly went back to where she was and met with Harry who was holding back a smile.

"Perhaps I should walk you back? It's easy to get lost if you're not used to the castle." He told her.

"Yeah that be great." They started to walk side by side back to the room. After a moment of silence, Melinda spoke up.

"So… why don't you ask me a question right now? Something quick I can answer?" Melinda asked him.

Harry thought about a question. He wanted to know so much, it was like the first time he had found out he was a wizard. He just wanted to find out what he had been missing. But there was one he had since the Americans had first entered Hogwarts, and although Hermione had learned countless information about the Halliwells and told him all she had found out, there was still one thing he wanted to know.

"Can you really control all the elements?" Harry asked her. Melinda looked a bit surprised at his question and then let out a small laugh.

"Really? Of all the questions to start off with, it's one about me and my powers?" She laughed and Harry looked a bit sheepish, but he wanted to know the answer.

"Where did you hear that anyway?" She asked him.

"Hermione says that it's in all the legends about your family. That you can control all the elements and that you're nicknamed Mother Nature." Harry responded.

Melinda looked at him weirdly while he was explaining, and when he mentioned her supposed 'nickname' she made a face.

"Ugh, that's what people call me?" Of course she had finally learned that her family were 'stories' told by old wizarding families. Although it was a bit weird, after all, they were real. She had even hit her brother to make sure. But she didn't know all the aspects of the story and what was actually true or not.

"Well, there's not exactly a fast answer to that question, but no, contrary to popular belief, I do not control all of the elements. Well, at least not at the moment." Harry looked confused and Melinda stopped them in their walk back to the Trophy Room. Oh well, she was already late.

She paused, thinking of the best way to explain this. "Okay, so when a new witch is born, she is already destined to have specific powers. But they don't always just appear when the witch is young. For example, my older brother Wyatt, who is probably the only kid to have done this, used his force field from inside the womb. Therefore, technically his first power is his force field. Chris, my other brother, didn't start using his powers until he was about two. It was telekinesis by the way." She stopped to make sure that Harry was following.

"But what does this have to do with your powers?" He asked her, not sure where this was going.

"I'm getting to that. You see, I didn't start using my powers until I was about four." She then got an embarrassed look on her face. "I accidently set my mom's shoes on fire. She seriously considered binding my powers after that."

Harry laughed at her look and waited to hear what happened next.

"My family thought I was a fire starter, which is a bit odd since I was the first in my family to do so. Although the fires I started weren't normal..." she trailed off.

Harry nodded his head in understanding, "They were blue."

Melinda nodded and turned around, randomly walking to an unknown destination. "Exactly."

"Anyway, like I was saying, we don't necessarily get all our powers at once. You see Harry, our powers are tied to our emotions. When we gain a new power, that power will mainly work if someone is scared or angry. As we become more familiar with our powers, we are able to control it better. As we get older and mature, so do our powers. However, throughout our lives we may or may not get more than one power. Most witches have only one power, but the more powerful they are, the more abilities they may possess. Such as my family." Melinda stopped, and looked at Harry, who was following behind her, listening intently. "Well, especially my family." She continued walking.

"Coming back to the question about my powers, you already know I can control and conjure fire. But as another elemental aspect, I can control wind. Which in a way is a bit more like Chris' power, just more, flashy and well, windy?"

"But as to this whole 'Mother Nature' deal that goes along with my part of the legend, I can see where they came up with that title." Melinda made a face, "Although, I think a more original title could be given to me."

Harry interrupted her. "But what you're saying is that you can control fire and wind." Melinda nodded her head. "But what about the water in Moody's class? Surely you had done that?"

Melinda looked at him. So people _had _been talking about that. "Harry, what was I just saying earlier? About powers developing throughout a witches' life?"

Harry thought back to what he had just learned, and then he understood. "So what you're saying is that, water- or controlling it rather, is new to you?" Melinda smiled at Harry, glad he had understood.

But Harry thought back to how the water had exploded and how, in that quick second when he looked at her, she looked frightened. "But if it's tied to your emotions, then you were either really scared or angry. And you didn't seem angry to me. So what scared you?"

Melinda paused in her walk, which prompted Harry to stop as well. '_Crap, this guy puts two and two together far too fast'._ Melinda thought to herself. She wasn't ready to get into _that part _of her questioning yet. She slowly turned to face him, meeting his expectant face. Melinda thought fast.

"That, my dear friend, is another question for another time." He was about to respond, when she quickly cut him off.

"Back to what I was saying earlier." Harry got the hint and listened, but now he had another question that would be getting at him until he got his answer.

"Eventually I will get the water power under control. But according to the Elders, which are like your Ministry, I have a greater destiny. Which is something they say over and over, but never tell me exactly what the hell my destiny is." Melinda spoke with an angry tone in her voice as she mentioned the Elders, and Harry suspected they were probably as infuriating as the Ministry.

"Since I can control, fire, wind, and in a way, water, it's expected that I can control the earth, which is a lot harder than it sounds." Melinda explained.

Harry was confused. "But how can they be sure that you can? I mean, sure you can control three elements, but what makes it so sure that you can control another? Or will control another?"

Melinda looked down and a sad expression crossed over her face. "Because I've already shown that I can control it." She answered him softly. After a minute she looked up again, a fiery look upon her face, all trace of sadness gone.

"There was an incident involving an earthquake, but that's all I'm going to tell you. So because of that one… _event_, it shows I have the power in me, I just use it when I have many different emotions going on at once. But so far, I haven't been able to use it again, and frankly I don't know if I ever will." She told him in a voice that expected no questions about the statement. By the look on her face, Harry was a bit frightened to ask what had happened.

Melinda must have figured out she scared Harry a bit, but there was no way she was going to explain _that_. She continued normally, as if the previous statement hadn't occurred.

"I've also been known to cause small storms around San Francisco when I'm angry or sad. Therefore, _Mother Nature_ bows down to me." She told him, a slight edge to her voice.

Harry stared at her. How is it, that a girl, the same age as him, who seemed so _normal_ could control all of that? If she did in fact get the earth and water under control, than that would mean-

Melinda seemed to have been reading his mind, because the next minute, she had bowed down rather flamboyantly and said, "In conclusion, you are standing in front of the most powerful witch to have ever graced the earth."

When she straightened back up, she had a tired look to her face. Harry recognized that look. It was the same one he had every time he looked into the mirror. It was the look of someone who was tired of being thrust into the spotlight, and the danger that came with it.

"But you don't want to be, do you?" Harry asked her softly.

She looked at him, surprised at how gentle and calm he was to her statement. Others became a bit scared or awed. But Harry was… different in his reaction. Maybe this friendship wouldn't be so bad.

Melinda stared straight into his eyes. "No, but only because I'm tired of having to watch my family be put in danger all the time." She answered him honestly.

"MELINDA!" The teens looked away from each other to see that they had, somehow, made it back to the Trophy Room. Piper was walking away from her sons, who seemed to be talking quite happily to Rita Skeeter. However, her mom's loud outburst had caused all pairs of eyes in the room to spot Harry and Melinda. Melinda waved awkwardly, while Harry gave a small smile before looking down at his shoes. Piper walked up to the pair of them.

"Melinda, sweetheart, where did you go?" Melinda was staring at her mother who was talking in a strained, _this-woman-is-crazy-and-we-had-to-stay-until-she-interviewed-you_, voice.

"Sorry, mom, but I was just," Melinda turned to face Harry, putting an arm around his shoulder, which made her realize he was a good few inches taller than her, "having a talk with Harry."

She gestured between them, "Harry this is my mom, Piper Halliwell. Mom, this is Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Halliwell." Harry shook her hand and Melinda heard a flash, looking up to see that the cameraman had taken a picture of the exchange. She ignored it as her mom smiled warmly to Harry.

"Please call me Piper, it's so nice to meet you, I've heard lots about you Harry." Melinda and Harry looked confusingly at her.

Piper seemed at a lost, before quickly explaining, "The Professors say you're a sweet boy and… a talented athlete!" Melinda looked at her mother, knowing she was lying. Harry seemed to know that as well, before replying a quick 'thank you'.

"Well, Melinda needs to join us, but it was nice meeting you Harry, hope to see you soon." Piper walked down the stairs, signaling Melinda to follow. Melinda stayed back to talk to Harry real quick.

"How did you know? That I wasn't good with being so… well known?" She asked him quietly.

"I'm the Boy Who Lived." Harry replied bitterly. "If anyone were to know, it be me. But I'll let you get back to your family."

Harry was going to walk away, before Melinda caught his arm. There was another 'flash' sound, but they ignored it.

"Saturday, 11 at breakfast, I'll meet you in the Great Hall so we can start our first teaching session." Melinda smiled kindly at him, before adding, "You can tell me about The Boy Who Lived. I hear that's a famous tale in the wizarding world." She smirked, and Harry smiled before letting out a small laugh. He nodded and left with a small 'bye'.

As he walked away, Melinda started heading to her family, not noticing the look Rita Skeeter was giving to her cameraman, before glancing at Melinda and the spot where Harry had stood. With a smile, she turned towards Melinda, who politely introduced herself and sat down between her mom and eldest brother.

Rita started firing questions off to Melinda, thinking that the Halliwells coming to Hogwarts would be a great article for her, especially since one of the champions seemed to be so well acquainted with the youngest Halliwell.

* * *

**Yay! Harry and Melinda interaction, finally! Did yall understand Melinda's explanation to Harry? I hope so, it'll be a big part of the story later, later. ****And what does Skeeter have up her sleeve? Tsk, tsk!  
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**This story has over a thousand hits! Thanks for all the alerts, reviews and favorites! Although no one guessed where the line was! It was: _Melinda scoffed, "Eternal glory? Already got that." _The line is from A Very Potter Musical, said by Harry himself!  
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**And is Harry in character here? I think he is, but I can't be sure. Anyways, I get lots of hits on the chapters but not a lot of reviews, so I think I've made it a game to myself to get more reviews. So tell you what, if you review, I'll give you a sneak peek of next chapter! (Which I promise won't take a week to upload.)**

**And one last question: Who should Melinda attend the Yule Ball with? By herself? Any HP character? Hey, maybe even Liam or Roy, they're fun!  
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**If there are any major mistakes, let me know, please :) I always hope I get the chapter real good, but I may miss one or two mistakes.**

**Lemme know! And remember: 1 Review= Sneak Peek! :D  
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	7. Articles and Magic

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

Articles and Magic

Melinda was sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating her oatmeal and toast, enjoying the quiet Saturday Morning. She still had an hour before Harry was supposed to be here, and she had checked out from the library a book of defensive spells. She was going through them, trying to figure out which would be the best ones to try and get Harry to learn when she heard two bodies slam into the seats across from her and roughly pull her book down.

She glared at her brothers, who were smiling like idiots.

"Go away." She told them shortly, before taking a bite of her toast. Whatever they had done, she didn't want to be involved.

"That's right Chris, she's got a meeting with Harry later this morning." Wyatt said, a happy tone lacing his voice. She looked up and narrowed her eyes at her brother. They knew she was going to help him. But why did he say it like that?

"Ok. What's going on?" The brothers smiled at each other, before Chris slid a newspaper over to her. She hadn't even noticed he had placed it on the table. She looked at it and then at him, before sighing and picking it up.

"Page 5." Wyatt told her, smiling big.

She looked at him once before glancing down at the front cover, seeing it was The Daily Prophet, the wizarding newspaper, and flipped over to the right page. She saw that the page Wyatt was talking about was just an article by Rita Skeeter about the champions. Well, 'Harry Potter and the Triwizard Cup', anyway. She glanced through the article before looking at her brothers.

"And? It's a poorly written article about Harry." She told them. But before she could put the paper down, Chris smirked at her.

"Read the last line." She looked down at the paper and read:

'_Young Harry Potter may be having flashbacks of his short lived time with his parents upon his approaching doom in the tournament. However, perhaps a beautiful, young American may be helping console him amongst this lonely time.' (Turn to Page 6 for the article.)'_

Ignoring her brother's amused looks, Melinda quickly turned to the next page, gasping at what she saw next. On the left was the article about her family. However, when she looked to the right she saw a full page article.

Featuring her and Harry.

She stared at the paper, looking at the three pictures on the page. One was of her, sitting on a window sill of Hogwarts, which was taken when doing the interview with that Skeeter woman. However the other two surprised her. The first one was of her mother shaking Harry's hand, while Melinda had her arm around his shoulders. The second one was of Harry walking off, but Melinda pulling him back and saying something to him, before they both smiled at each other.

She looked up at the article and saw that it read:

"_Famous Pair Fall in Love at Hogwarts?"_

_By Rita Skeeter_

'_After meeting the champions of the Triwizard Tournament, I was able to interview the beautiful Halliwell family. However, noticeably absent was the youngest and rumored to be the most powerful of the clan, Melinda Halliwell. After half an hour of interviewing her family, we were finally met with the presence of Ms. Halliwell. And yet who was with her but the one chosen champion, Harry Potter himself!_

_Piper Halliwell, Charmed One, wife to Headmaster Leo Wyatt, and mother of Wyatt, Chris, and Melinda Halliwell, went up to Harry and met him for the first time (check picture insert above). She apparently found Harry to be a sweet and charming boy. However, I felt horrible for interrupting the two's alone time, but before I could allow them to continue their rendezvous, young Mr. Potter turned to leave. But not before his love pulled him back and gave him a sweet kiss, before whispering their next meeting time together. Which, my lovely readers, I can exclusively reveal will be Saturday morning before noon! Perhaps these two will get in some alone time before Mr. Potter faces the three other champions in the First Task'._

Melinda glanced over the rest of the article, which included information about her family and herself. She heard some students talking and realized that while she had been reading, other students were starting to enter the Hall. She looked up and noticed that some seemed to be pointing in her direction and were also reading the same paper she had now.

She looked up at her brothers who, having grabbed some breakfast while she was reading through the paper, stopped what they were doing and gained their same stupid smiles on their face. She glared at them, daring one of them to say something.

Chris spoke first. "So, are we going to have to talk to Harry about where these _rendezvous _should be held?" He asked her.

"First of all, _Christopher, _you know perfectly well that this is false crap made up by someone who is desperate to get a story." But before Melinda could name a second point, Wyatt had grabbed the paper from her.

"Hmm, I don't know Mel, I mean this picture does look like you two are kissing." And the worst part was that it did. Melinda got angry and grabbed the paper from his hands. But before she could threaten him in any way, she saw heard the Great Hall suddenly go quiet and then heard whispers about the room. She quickly turned to see that Harry, dressed in normal clothing, was heading towards her, trying to stare straight ahead and avoid the whispers, but the annoyance was evident on his face.

"May I sit here?" He asked her quietly.

"Yeah, of course." She shifted some of the books over to the side to make room for him. He immediately sat down next to her and pulled a plate to him, filling it with some eggs. It was when he was pouring himself some orange juice that he noticed she had the paper in her hands.

"You saw it as well then?" He asked her. He was irritated but also a bit embarrassed. "I'm really sorry about that. Stupid article."

Melinda looked to him and smiled, "No worries. If anything, it amused my brothers to an extent, which means relentless teasing for a while until they find something else to occupy their time. By the way, Harry, these are my older brothers Wyatt and Chris."

Melinda had finished the sentence while looking at her brothers, who were pretending not to listen in, but when Melinda introduced them they looked up and said a quick 'Hey'. They quickly finished up their food and stood up and looked at each other before looking down to Harry and Melinda. Wyatt got a stern look on his face.

"Now Harry, Melinda is very dear to us. So make sure to have her back to her room by 10 tonight." Harry turned a light shade of pink before looking down at his food, and before Melinda could yell at him, Chris put in his two cents.

"Yes, now we must go, so we cannot chaperone this… _study date, _but please remember you are a gentleman and she is a lady." The brothers burst out laughing, and so did some of the other students in the Hall who were listening in. They ran away, laughing loudly, before Melinda could retaliate in any way. She did however, manage to throw a slice of toast at the boys, but it landed in the middle of the table.

She looked over at Harry who seemed embarrassed and angry at the laughs around the room. Melinda couldn't blame him, she was also still trying to get her blush under control.

"I'm sorry about them. They're idiots. I honestly don't know where they got it from, but when they're together, they can be absolutely stupid." She said to him, taking a drink of her apple juice.

Harry waved it off with a quiet, "Don't worry about it." Melinda could still feel the stares of the Hall on her and could hear the occasional whispering involving her and Harry, making them feel awkward with one another.

"Of course she'd go with him." A loud voice burst out over the Hall. Melinda and Harry turned around to see a blonde, with a pointed face sneering at her and Harry.

"A match made in heaven, I reckon. Potter may think he can get everyone to back him since he's with her, but we all know that all the fame in the world won't get us to support what was rightfully taken from Diggory, can we?" The fools around him barked in laughter. Harry turned around rather forcefully.

"Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea." He told her, as he was about to get up. But she shook her head and held him down.

"Ignore them." She told them. "Who is that guy anyway?"

"Malfoy." He told her, gritting his teeth. "His father works at the Ministry and his family is one of the oldest pureblood family's in the wizarding world."

Melinda looked at him confused. "Pureblood?"

"Yeah, meaning the whole Malfoy family line had magic in their blood." He glanced back to Malfoy, who was apparently still making jokes about them, before turning around. "They look down on those who are half- bloods, but especially muggleborns." After seeing the quizzical look on Melinda's face, Harry quickly explained, "Muggles. People without magic."

Melinda nodded her head in understanding. "Huh. Muggles. I like that."

Harry looked at her, "You don't have that?"

Melinda, who had gone to eating some pancakes, looked up, "Hmm? Oh no. Pretty much anyone can be a witch, whether they have magic in their blood or not. It doesn't really matter. As long as you were born with magic."

As Harry finished up his breakfast and started collecting the three books Melinda had brought for them, he heard Malfoy let out a laugh.

"Oh look! Potter's a gentleman, taking the books for his lady!" The Hall laughed again before Melinda, fed up with these taunts, stood up and walked over to Malfoy, who became quiet as she stood in front of the Slytherin table.

She grabbed the newspaper from in front of him, which held the offending article and held it up in front of him. A few people let out a few gasps as the paper in her hand started smoking before being engulfed in blue flames. Melinda dropped the paper, letting the last of it be burned on the table, and leaned close to Malfoy.

"Any more comments from you and maybe next time the fire will be closer than you think." She flicked her hand towards Malfoy and everybody looked confused until one of his friends yelled out a yell before pointing towards Malfoy's sleeve, which had started smoking.

The Hall had burst out laughing, and she turned to see Harry with a gleeful look on his face. She saw one of the Slytherins douse Malfoy's sleeve in water, which also wet the front of his shirt.

The Hall laughed even louder and Melinda turned to stand towards Harry. As they began to walk out of the Great Hall, she heard Malfoy call out, "My father will hear about this!"

She turned around and smirked at him. "_My_ father is not only the Headmaster of one of the greatest schools, but also a much respected man." She added as an afterthought, "I will not be held responsible for what my brothers or I will do to you should anything happen to our father." She turned around, Harry following behind her, not even waiting to see or hear Malfoy's response.

As they entered the corridor, Melinda turned to face Harry, who was still laughing at Melinda's show in the library. He pointed towards a direction and led her outside the castle. While he was ahead of her, he said to her, "You know his father will do something about that. He won't stay quiet."

Melinda shook him off, "My family and I deal with demons on a daily basis. One parent- teacher meeting won't be too bad."

* * *

Melinda took in the beautiful scenery around her. Hogwarts was really a wondrous place. For the past three hours her and Harry had been hanging out by the Black Lake, just talking. Harry had told her earlier on that Hermione was helping him with the spells, not that he didn't appreciate the help, but he'd rather spend this time learning about Magic School and Wiccan magic. They then had spent the time showing each other magic, Harry using his wand to transfigure items, or spin out sparks, while Melinda showed him some basic parts of what she could use her powers for.

"I never thought there was so much more to magic." Harry told Melinda, after seeing her create a small flock of leaves to swirl around them.

"Me neither." Melinda agreed. She was impressed with all the spells that could be done with a wand. _Speaking of spells, _she thought to herself as she sat up on her knees.

"You know we don't use just one word like you do to cast spells." This immediately caught Harry's attention.

"You don't?" Harry sat up straighter against the tree that he was sitting against. The books that had been brought had been stacked neatly away from them. He stared at the girl in front of him.

She grinned at him before saying a simple, "Nope. And I would show you, but that may be personal gain, I guess." She seemed a little frustrated at that.

"Personal gain?" Harry asked her.

"Yeah. You see, we're only supposed to really use our powers to save innocents, help the world, all that stuff. And usually we can get around it with little things, but using spells to clean the house or entertain a friend," she smiled at Harry, "would probably cause the spell to backfire somehow."

"And that would probably be the reason why I envy you so much. Just a flick and bam! Something's done and no consequences." She went to grab Harry's wand that was held limply in his hands.

The second she had it in her hands, she heard footsteps from behind her and immediately turned around, the wand being held at her side.

"Hey! Finally! We've been looking all over for you." Chris climbed down the small hill and stood in front of Melinda. He looked behind her to Harry.

"Sorry Harry, but Melinda needs to be doing something with us right now." He brought his gaze back down to Melinda, "Grab your stuff and meet me up at your room. I've got to tell Wyatt I found you." He nodded a bye to Harry and walked back towards where he had come from.

Melinda turned towards Harry and saw that he had stood up and was looking at her oddly.

"What?" She asked him. She followed his gaze and found that he was looking at his wand in her hand.

"Oh! Sorry, almost took that with me." She stepped forward and handed it to him. "It felt kind of… normal to be holding it." She let out a small laugh and bent down to retrieve the books. However before she could gather them, Harry had stepped forward.

"Oh, don't worry, I can take those back." He picked them up and they both headed up the small slope.

As they were about to part, she turned and beamed at Harry. "It was great getting to know you Mr. Potter. Especially all about the guy behind the 'Boy Who Lived'."

Harry grimaced at the title but grinned back at her. They had chatted about how they grew up, Harry with the horrid Dursleys, and Melinda with her crazy family. It was nice to have a talk with someone who was so different from anyone they had ever met.

"It was great hanging out with you as well, Melinda. Nice to get away from the constant memorization of spells, actually." He chuckled but then became worried. He seemed to suddenly be hit with the realization that he was actually going to be competing in the First Task in a couple of days.

Melinda sensed this and put her hand on Harry's shoulder. "Don't worry about this Harry. You'll get through this. From the little I've gotten to know about Hermione, I know for a fact that she won't let you go in empty handed."

Harry sent a small smile her way and nodded. "Right. But I think you better go, your brothers' might kill me if you're late." She gave him a small hug and waved bye to him before starting to walk away. However, Harry felt the wand in his pocket and looked up to Melinda, remembering what had happened earlier.

"Melinda!" He shouted slightly. She stopped and turned to him, a small confusion set across her face before he walked up to her.

"You told me that only those that are meant to wield a wand can do so." She nodded and waited for him to continue.

"Is it possible that a witch like you would be able to do so? Handle a wand, I mean?" She thought for a moment before answering.

"I guess so. I mean, it might be unlikely, but magic is magic. It just depends if you're _meant _to, I would suppose." She shrugged her shoulders, before turning back to walk to her room.

"I'll see you later, Harry!" She shouted over her shoulders.

* * *

Harry was heading back towards Gryffindor Tower, figuring he'd thumb through the books Melinda had found. As he entered the Common Room and sat down at an empty table, he pulled his wand out and held out it in front of him.

He thought back to when Melinda had held his wand. She had turned around too quickly to see the effect of his wand in her hand. But he had seen it. He watched as small green sparks shot out softly from it. The reason he had asked Melinda if a witch like her could wield it, was to see if what he had saw was even possible. But evidently it was.

So why hadn't Melinda come to Hogwarts? Surely Dumbledore would've sent out a letter to a Halliwell who held wizarding magic, right? And how is it that she didn't- _or doesn't_, Harry reminded himself- know that she has wizarding magic in her?

He looked up as he saw Hermione and Ron enter the Common Room. Ron, seeing Harry was there, sped up towards the boy's dormitory. Harry didn't care right now. All he could worry about was the upcoming task, and why Melinda Halliwell didn't know she had the magical ability to attend Hogwarts.

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**Yay! Another chapter out! More b********rotherly taunting** and Melinda/Harry interaction which is fun!

**Anyways, I wanna update more often, I feel like they're too spaced out. So look out for the next chapter probably later on today, because I work tomorrow (Wed.) and I probably won't feel up to updating until about Friday or Saturday.  
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**So, the question for who Melinda should go to the Yule Ball with is still up in the air. Although the chapter after next will probably be the Yule Ball, so answer quickly!  
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**Thanks to those who reviewed and Favorited! It makes me glad to know yall are still liking the story! Anyways, I will go ahead and keep up with rewarding a review with a preview of the next chapter. And we're so close to 30 reviews! I like to keep my numbers in increments of 5 (weird, I know!) so hopefully within the next two chapters we can hit that? :D  
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**See you later! Adios!  
**


	8. Dragons and the First Task

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.  
**

**AN: It's not my favorite chapter, but it's fun :)  
**

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Dragons and the First Task

"Geez Melinda, can you be any louder?" Chris whispered to Melinda as she treaded, quite loudly, throughout the forest.

"I'm sorry, but I can't see a damn thing." She retorted. She then turned around to see a bright blue light being held in Wyatt's hands.

"Apparently," Wyatt started,"if I create a small enough force field, it can also double as a flashlight."

Melinda grinned at her brother. "I always knew you were my favorite."

Wyatt chuckled as Chris scoffed and headed in front of them to lead them to a large empty area in the forest.

"So why did we need to come out here? What are we doing out here anyway?" Wyatt and Chris ignored Melinda, until they reached the tree-free area, which was now filled with-

"Dragons." Melinda whispered to herself in awe. Very real dragons were being held in huge cages. Melinda looked around and saw several men around each dragon, trying to keep them tame. She wondered to herself why dragons would be there, until she counted them.

Four.

"They're going to have to battle dragons?" She shouted to her brother.

Wyatt nodded and immediately shouted as one of the dragons, having been alerted to the siblings by Melinda's cry, roared a huge fire towards them. Before Wyatt could shut a force field over them, Melinda thrust out her hand in front of her, which caused the fire to bounce off her hand and instead divide to either side of it. She waited until the fire was gone before lowering her hand.

"Thanks Melinda. It would've been great to send Mom her three kids fried, right?" Chris retorted.

Melinda ignored him and instead looked to Wyatt who was staring at the dragons in awe. Dragons were always Wyatt's favorite animals. '_Or creatures, I should say,'_ she thought to herself. Piper had always told her daughter about when Wyatt was younger and how he had orbed a dragon from the television, which then proceeded to bring about chaos upon San Francisco. That little fact didn't seem to lower Wyatt's interest in them. If anything, he felt an even stronger bond with them.

Melinda always thought it was a little weird. '_But oh well', _she figured, _'he can like the dragons all he wanted'. _As long as he didn't orb out another one, it didn't really matter to her.

"So, are we allowed to keep them?" She heard a laugh from behind her and whirled around to see a red head coming their way.

"That wouldn't be too wise, but it sure would be something." The man took off his glove and shook hands with the brunette. "Hello, I'm Charlie Weasley, you must be Melinda, your brothers, and my brothers for that matter have talked about you so much already."

Melinda shook his hand but looked at him quizzically, "What do you mean your brothers?" And then she looked at his red hair and remembered his name, "Oh! Weasley! You're Fred, George and Ron's brother?"

"Yes." He grinned, and then he smirked, immediately making a face _very _similar to the twins, "Although, from what I hear, you're too busy with someone else to talk to them are you?"

Before she could respond, Chris walked up to them.

"So Charlie, what is it that you needed us to do?"

Charlie became serious. Melinda wasn't sure if it was because Chris had sounded it, or because that was his nature. "Your parents had said that you were going to place a spell on the champions to keep them safe during the First Task. I wanted to know if perhaps, you could also do that as well for the dragons."

"I don't see a problem with it." Wyatt told him. He looked to his siblings.

"It's fine with me." Chris said, looking to Melinda, who agreed.

Before Charlie could reply, one of the bigger dragons began to get restless in its cage. Some of the other wizards had already started running towards it, making Charlie follow. Melinda looked towards it and noticed that it was probably the fiercest dragon there. It had spikes all up it's back, neck and tail.

"Hold back, Hagrid!" Charlie shouted.

The siblings all turned towards who Charlie was talking too. Coming out of the woods were two very large people. One of whom Melinda recognized as Madame Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons. The other was someone she had only seen once, but heard so much about from Harry. Hagrid had the same look of awe upon his face that Wyatt had upon seeing the dragons.

"Stunning spell on three!" Melinda turned back around to witness three streams of light be shot out from three different wands. As they hit the dragon, it slumped to its cage and Charlie walked over to Hagrid and Maxime, talking to Hagrid after Maxime had walked off to get a closer look at the dragons.

Wyatt heard footsteps come up behind him and turned around to see who it was. No one was there, but before he could call out to see if they just walked away, Chris leaned over to him and Melinda.

"How much do you wanna bet that she goes to tell her champion?" Chris murmured to them.

"Well, if she does, that means we have as much as a right as her to tell Harry. Doesn't it?" Melinda asked her brothers.

Wyatt sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "But we came here as a request of Charlie, not to go telling Harry exactly what we saw. It wouldn't be fair. Besides, he's probably already asleep in his dorm."

They stopped talking as Charlie walked back over to them, Hagrid in tow. They had all introduced each other when Wyatt looked to Charlie.

"What are they supposed to do for the First Task?" He asked him.

Charlie explained that they each had to pass the dragon, and retrieve an egg. It didn't seem that hard, but the dragons were ferocious so it would be quite a task.

Wyatt pulled out a piece of folded paper from his pocket and motioned for his siblings to come in closer. "Ok, let's do the spell and then head up already. We have to get up early."

* * *

It was early Tuesday morning and it seemed that every student and Professor at Hogwarts was already headed to, or at, the large arena located awhile away from Hogwarts. One half of the arena was designated for the students of Hogwarts and across from that was the area to accommodate the visitors of Hogwarts. Almost everyone was already there, waiting for the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament to start.

Melinda entered the Champion's tent behind her brothers. As she entered, she passed Hermione who seemed a little embarrassed, and paused to give her friend a hug.

"Please help keep him safe, Melinda!" Hermione pleaded into her ear.

Melinda pulled her worried friend back and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Hermione, everybody is going to be fine. Besides, Harry had you to help him, he'll do great." She watched as Hermione walked to the stands and then entered the tent to see that everyone was huddled in a circle.

Chris watched as his sister came to stand between him and Wyatt, watching with huge eyes at the small dragons in the Champions' hands. He heard a soft gasp come from her as she noticed that Harry held the Hungarian Horntail. He put an arm around her shoulder and they both listened to what Barty Crouch had to say about the Task.

"Any questions?" Crouch asked the Champions around him. As they all stood firmly rooted to their spots, he nodded his head towards Leo and Paige, who stepped forward.

"To ensure the safety of the students, your Headmasters and Headmistress along with Mr. Crouch have agreed to allow us to place a protective charm on all four of you." He motioned for his children to step forward, as Paige continued the explaining, "Now don't worry, this spell won't affect your skills in anyway, it will simply pull you out of the arena should you be hit with any kind of fatal wound. That of which, Wyatt or I will heal for you. Is everyone okay with that?"

Harry, along with the other champions nodded, feeling a bit more relieved at the fact that they wouldn't necessarily die today. He watched as Wyatt pulled out a slip of folded paper from his pocket and held it out so he and his siblings could read it aloud. Despite having to face a dragon very soon, Harry became excited at the prospect of watching some more wiccan magic. He looked around and saw that everyone else had the same feeling, although were holding it back a bit better than he. He faced forward as Melinda and her brothers began to chant.

"_For the four who dwell _

_Within the circle of this spell_

_We shield you from the fire of today,_

_Pulled to safety and out of harm's way,_

_From now until sun down for this day." _

Everyone in the room watched as a red bright light encased the four champions before quickly disappearing. Harry looked down at his body and realized he felt no different. He figured he would've felt the impact of the spell, be he hadn't.

"Now the spell will start from right now until the end of today. And as we said, should any fatal wound hit you, you'll be summoned to this tent immediately where you will be fully healed by me or Paige." Chris restated to the champions and occupants of the room.

Dumbledore walked forward, "Very well, champions." He looked to Cedric, who seemed nervous, "Mr. Diggory at the sound of the cannon, you may-"

A loud bang from the cannon above cut Dumbledore off, and scared those within the tent. As they regained their bearings they looked up to see that Mr. Filch had set the cannon off early. Melinda ignored Cedric as he walked out of the tent, and went over to stand next to Harry who was looking down at his feet.

"So, you've got a brilliant plan to win this, the dragon can't kill you and a lot of people are rooting for you." She turned to Harry who was now looking at her. "What's got you down?"

Harry stared at her, before looking down then up again. "It's still terrifying," he told her quietly. "What if I don't do the summoning spell right? I don't want to look like a fool."

Melinda grabbed Harry by the shoulders. "Look here, Potter. You _will _get past the dragon, ok? You've worked real hard on that spell. Just- just as soon as you get in that arena, locate the dragon and get a safe distance from it so that you can summon the broom. After that, you'll know what to do."

Harry looked at Melinda and realized she was very confident about what she was saying. There was no doubt in her mind that he could get this. While it helped to know that someone was rooting for him, it did little to assure him that _he _could do it. Harry looked up as Paige called Melinda. She gestured towards the arena and Melinda nodded before turning back to her.

"I'm supposed to be out there making sure the flames from the dragon don't hit the students." She paused, "Not that it should, but it's better to be safe than sorry." She hesitated a moment before pulling Harry into a tight hug. After a second of confusion, Harry hugged her back.

"You'll be fine, Harry." She stated, before pulling back from him and turning around. As she headed out of the tent with Chris, he looked up and found that Paige was looking at him. She sent him a warm smile, and Harry gave her a small one back, before sitting down to listen to the audience react to the game outside.

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**So sorry for making this late! I really should stop promising when a chapter will be out lol I did have this chapter written, although very differently, but a review from _JayFireweaver_** **made me edit the chapter. (I hope I understood what you were saying. What I understood was that I kept writing in a bit of a first person view? I can't explain it, but hopefully this chapter was written better! If that's not what you meant let me know! :D)**

**And at the request of the same reviewer, I threw in a spell, which let me tell you is actually troubling to write, but hopefully it's ok :D  
**

**Next chapters should be Yule Ball centric! Oh, and I'm going to skip the whole dragon-arena thing because it was either I write all that and update who-knows-when, or finish this and update now!  
**

**Thanks for the reviews! And I apologize to _JayFireweaver _and _Sophia Kaiba, _for not sending a preview of the chapter! I got busy and figured I would just upload the full chapter for your wonderful reviews :D  
**

**Thanks for the reviews, alerts and favorites! And if you have any requests for the story, or critiques, send them my way, I'll gladly see what I can do! :D  
**


	9. Expectations

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

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**A/N: Sorry it took so long! I got busy, but no worries, I give you all a new chapter!  
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Expectations

When Melinda entered the Great Hall, everyone was well into their morning, with breakfast being eaten here and there and conversations in full swing. It seemed that since Harry had performed at the First Task, he seemed to be gaining a fair amount of supporters. Even those at Magic School were beginning to support the youngest champion. It's not that the Americans had anything against Harry, they were just rooting for the ones with the greater chance at winning, and right now, it seemed to be him.

Melinda was alone that morning, since her father and Aunt Paige were meeting with Professor Dumbledore, and her mom and Aunt Phoebe were trying to find a way to send a letter to her cousins and Uncles, to let them know that they were doing fine. Wyatt and Chris were doing something that Melinda really wanted no hand in.

As Melinda sat in front of Harry, she looked to the paper in Hermione's hand.

"So, Granger, we've talked about this. You need to stay away from Harry. After all, you've got," she grabbed the paper and looked at the article, "'the Bulgarian bonbon Viktor Krum.' I don't want to hear any more about you coming in between the two of us." Melinda grinned devilishly as she folded the paper in front of her.

"Haha, very funny Melinda." Hermione replied sarcastically. "You know people are going to actually believe you two are together."

"You mean more so than they already do, Hermione?" Harry asked, and laughed looking to Melinda. Sure he and Melinda spent a lot of time together, but they were really good friends. Harry was glad to have someone besides Ron and Hermione to talk to. He loved his best friends, but Melinda seemed to be something else entirely. Besides, he didn't hold any romantic feelings for her. She was someone he could count on entirely, and right now, that was something he really needed.

"People can believe what they want to Hermione. Besides, I'm doing Harry a favor. I'm keeping all the crazy people away from him." Melinda reasoned.

"And how so are you doing that exactly?" Hermione asked, staring at the American next to her. Instead the answer came from the red head in front of her.

"Think about it, Hermione. Would you actually go after Harry if his girlfriend could turn you up in flames with just one look?" Ron asked rhetorically. Although it took him the longest to befriend Melinda, they were now able to hold conversations without Ron simply staring at her. At first that was all he did, but after it started to freak Melinda out a little (which caused her to leave whenever Ron was close) Harry was able to talk some sense into his best friend. For this Melinda was glad, because Ron really was a fun guy and had great humor. However, his strong personality always kept the two arguing. Especially when it came to whose 'creatures of magic' were the _original_ creatures of magic.

"But what if Harry actually likes someone and they end up being too afraid to talk to him because of it?" Hermione countered.

Harry looked over to the pretty brunette at Ravenclaw table who turned around to meet his eyes. She smiled sweetly at him before turning back to her friends, whom immediately began whispering to her. At this point, Harry couldn't help but think that Hermione was right. Harry turned back around to look at the American in front of him.

"Maybe your right, Hermione." However, before Hermione could respond, Melinda held up one finger, stopping her, "but my Uncle has always said 'True love will find its way no matter what obstacles it may face," she put her finger down and crossed her arms on the table. "Therefore if someone likes Harry, they should have no problem with the _rumor _that he is dating me. They should just tell him."

Melinda finished her reasoning and looked at Harry who was looking at his plate, his cheeks flushed slightly. He murmured to his friends, while poking the eggs on his plate, "Can we please stop talking about whom I may or may not like."

The girls, noticing their friend's embarrassment nodded and continued eating. Not a minute later a small flurry of orbs made its way onto Melinda's plate. As they disappeared a small note was left behind.

Melinda picked it up and read her Aunt Paige's small handwriting.

'_Come up to the room, we have a surprise for you!'_

Curious, she drank the remainder of her orange juice before standing up and addressing her friends.

"My Aunt wants to see me, so I'll see you all later." She gave a small wave to the three and made her way out of the Great Hall.

* * *

As Melinda entered the Common Room in the tower housing her family, she saw her mom and Aunts sitting on the couch chatting happily. She walked over and squeezed in between Phoebe and Paige.

"Okay, so what do you have for me?" She asked.

"Get right down to business don't you, Melinda?" Piper questioned, scrunching her nose and smiling to her sisters.

"But you're right, we shouldn't keep you waiting any longer!" Phoebe exclaimed, walking over to a table set up underneath the large windows. She then brought over a gold box that was tied with a pretty red ribbon.

As she set it down on the table and then took a seat on the floor, Melinda reached over to touch the silky ribbon.

"You got me a present?" She asked.

"It's a necessity," Piper answered, and then nodded her head slightly, "Well, it will be."

"Go on, open it," Paige encouraged, grabbing the box and placing it on Melinda's lap. Melinda gingerly pulled at the ribbon, allowing it to unravel. She then removed the lid and sifted through the tissue paper before pulling out the article of clothing. She gasped as she held the dress out in front of her. It was a beautiful shade of red, with one, inch-thick strap to hold it up. Across the top of the bust area was a thicker piece of fabric, encircling the dress, with small beautiful gold jewels sprinkled across it, ending with the fabric creating a strap to fall off the shoulder. Under the bust area was a light piece of chiffon wrapped around it, the fabric pulled out and falling to the floor, blending in with the floor length chiffon material, but creating wonderful dimension to the dress.

"This is beautiful," Melinda softly said, "but why do I need it? And how did you get it?" She looked over the elder female Halliwells, all who were pleased with her reaction to the dress. Phoebe spoke up from her place on the floor.

"We figured out weeks ago how to send letters through owl mail. And a few days ago, Paige told us that there would be a formal event, so I asked Coop to pick out a beautiful dress for you, and voila!" She gestured to the dress, excitedly, "Here it is!"

"As for the event," Paige began explaining, "Hogwarts will be hosting the Yule Ball, in order to encourage students to interact with those not from their school, and all in all just to let the students have a good time."

"And yes Melinda, it is a dance, as in you _will _be dancing." Piper stated, watching Melinda roll her eyes. While Melinda did enjoy getting dressed up and wearing beautiful clothing, she wasn't too fond of the dancing and interaction parts of such events. Only if she absolutely _needed _to, she would.

"What about Wyatt and Chris?" Melinda asked. She knew that Chris wasn't very fond of dances, so maybe they would be able to create a way to get out of there.

"They both need to find a date, as do you. You don't want to show up alone, do you?" Piper looked at her daughter sternly, "And regardless of whether you _do _want to show up alone, you will take a date to that Ball."

Melinda sighed, before looking at the dress in her hands. She looked up to find three beautiful faces looking at her.

"Fine." She replied, knowing that even if she had said no now, these three women would still find a way to have her say yes later. Phoebe let out a small squeal, before taking Melinda to look into a body length mirror located at the back of the room, her sisters following behind her.

"Now, all we'll have to do is put your hair in some curls and pin it up like this," Phoebe started demonstrating by holding Melinda's her at the back of her neck.

"And just a little make up, because you are already so beautiful." Piper told her, smiling gently at her lovely daughter.

Melinda smiled as the three women started talking shoes and accessories. However, while she was already prepared for the Yule Ball, she was missing one essential: a date. Phoebe, sensing Melinda's sudden change in mood, picked up her niece's sense of fear.

"You'll be fine, Melinda. There are many boys here that will gladly offer up to take you to the Ball. They'd have to be crazy not too!" Phoebe told her gently. Melinda let out a small smile at her Aunt, slightly doubting her words.

"If anything, I'm sure Harry will ask you. After all, the entire Wizarding World thinks you two are dating." Paige said.

Melinda thought about this, "What if Harry wants to ask someone else? I don't want to pressure him into thinking he has to take me. No, I'll find someone else to go to the Ball with." She thought this was the right choice. After all many people _did _believe they were really dating, and they weren't. What if she wanted someone else to ask her? '_Like who?'_ she questioned herself. She didn't really like anyone here, but then again, she wasn't really paying attention. _'I'll start asking Hermione who'd be fun to go with. After all, these British accents are very attractive.'_

Melinda giggled to herself and heard the door to the Common Room open. She turned around to see Chris walk in.

"Hi honey, where's your dad and Wyatt?" Piper asked.

Chris walked over to one of the tables and began flipping through some books. "I'm not sure. Wyatt said that Dad needed help with something, so he went to go find him." He looked up after answering and saw Melinda holding a red dress in her arms and he paused.

"Why does Melinda have a dress?" He feared the worst as his sister smirked at him.

"Because Hogwarts will be hosting the Yule Ball." That was all he needed to hear before deciding that leaving right this moment would be the best answer. However before he could exit the room, his mother had gotten ahold of his arm.

"Not so fast mister, we need to try on your tux." Piper said, reigning in her son to stand by her. Chris made a face before whining, "Seriously? Can't I just go find Dad and Wyatt and try it on with them?"

"No because for some reason the men in this family don't know what dressing up means," Paige replied, before adding, "Except for Coop anyway."

Chris made a sound of discontent before turning his blue eyes to meet his sister's. Luckily, he was with the sibling who understood his dislike at the meaning of dances.

"Actually Mom, Chris needed to help me with something… I was looking for a certain herb and Christopher said he'd help me yesterday, and I really need it now." Melinda explained, thinking at the top of her head.

"Uh huh." Piper almost always knew when her children were lying, and she was certain one of them was doing it right now. She crossed her arms as she asked, "And what exactly do you need it for that it can't wait?"

"Down at the Hospital Wing, one of the nurses was asking if she could compare our sleeping potions. And Melinda needed it delivered yesterday, but I got held up with Wyatt." Chris supplied, trying to make his mom believe him. He was the better convincer of his siblings.

Piper eyed them both before sighing and running a hand through her hair. "Fine, but you will try on that tuxedo Chris." She told him sternly. Chris nodded before looking at his sister, who was putting away her new dress in the box.

"Okay, we'll be back." Chris said, before letting Melinda lead him out of the Common Room.

Piper sighed and watched her youngest leave before turning to her sisters. "I have no idea what to do with those two sometimes."

Phoebe laughed before answering, "Melinda has Prue's personality and Chris has yours. You're telling me you don't understand why you can't control them?" Paige laughed as Piper let out a smile, "Yeah, yeah. Funny." She replied sarcastically.

"So Phoebe, have you talked to Billie yet?" Phoebe nodded before sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch her sister were occupying.

"She told me that there _is_ something going on in the Underworld. Something or someone is coming to power down there, and there was some sort of new alliance going on." She explained, remembering Billie projecting herself to her last night and telling her what she had found out in her stakeout. It was times like these that Phoebe was thankful the powerful, perky blonde was still a dear friend to the family, despite what had happened all those years ago.

"You don't think that they could be allying with whatever may be happening here do you?" Paige asked.

"Probably," Piper replied solemnly, "I mean demons are already stepping out here for some reason. If word has gotten out that we're here at Hogwarts and allying ourselves with Albus, then whoever is causing this stir is well aware that we know something is going on."

Phoebe looked at her sister's seriously. "But they have an upper hand don't they? They know who we are, but we don't know who they are. And if they know that Harry is good friends with Melinda…" She trailed off and looked to Piper.

"Then those coming after Harry may begin to view Melinda as a threat and target her as well." Piper finished, dread filling her as she thought of her youngest being attacked by an unknown evil.

Paige noticed Piper's fear and put her hand on her sister's knee. "Don't worry Piper, Melinda is powerful. We and especially her brothers won't let anyone hurt her."

Piper looked down before responding, "I know we will. I'm just scared that this may all be becoming greater than what we had expected."

* * *

**Oooh evil. And I've brought Billie into it, but so far I don't think she'll be making a full appearance. At least not in GoF... Did you like the Halliwell interactions? I do, it's fun writing them :)  
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**My A/N is going to be short (shocker right?) but it's because I'm going to start writing the next chapter which will include the Yule Ball and some more secret revealings... Kinda.. Sorta lol Anyways, sorry about the long wait, I AM trying to update faster, so forgive me. And what's with the new picture feature? Kinda cool, so now I can make a cover for my story is what I'm understanding?  
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**I am currently watching the NBA Western Finals and am rooting on my SPURS! And I've decided that if they win tonight, I will also update tonight :) So let's all hope the Spurs wins!  
**

******Thanks again for all the reviews, alerts and faves! We're over 30!** Let's keep it going! Hopefully I'll see you all in a few hours! :D :D  



	10. Girls and Boys

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

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**A/N: I'm incredibly pissed off. Why? Because the fricken Spurs lost to the Thunder! WTH? I absolutely loathe the Thunder right now. (Anyone that is a fan of them, or a resident of Oklahoma City, know that I don't hate you... Just your basketball team.) Anyways, I was typing this during the game to make me feel better, and you know what? I do... But I still resent the OKC Thunder. But on a happier note, it's a faster update! And a little longer :)  
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Girls and Boys

Melinda and Chris walked silently down the empty corridor, not really knowing where they were going, but enjoying the comfortable walk with one another. However their walk was halted when Chris stopped and tilted his head towards an open door. Melinda looked at him questioningly but nonetheless followed her brother to peek into the room. She was surprised to see a room full of students, boys on the left and girls on the right. She saw that they all held the symbol of Gryffindor on their sweaters, which meant her friends were in here somewhere.

"And I mean this literally because…" Melinda recognized the voice as belonging to Minerva McGonagall, who was the Headmistress and Transfiguration teacher of Hogwarts. She was also the Head of Gryffindor House.

"…the Yule Ball is first and foremost, a dance." Chris and Melinda began to try to smuggle their laughs as the girls began to get excited and the boys all groaned. However their efforts weren't good enough because they soon had to duck behind the door as a man, Filch, who was trying to figure out how to work a record player heard them and turned in their direction. They stayed still before crouching by the door and peering back in.

"The House of Godric Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizard world for nearly 10 centuries. I will not have you, in the course of a single evening, besmirching that name, by behaving like a babbling, bumbling, band of baboons!" McGonagall exclaimed, however Melinda and Chris had turned to look at each other.

"Babbling, bumbling, band of baboons-"

"Babbling, bumbling, band of baboons-"

"Babbling, bumbling, band of baboons-"

"Bumbling, bambling, band of- crap!" Melinda smirked at her brother's loss and turned back to look in the classroom.

"Inside every girl, a secret swan slumbers, longing to burst forth and take flight." While McGonagall had continued her lecture, Melinda had spotted Harry and Ron. She had seen Ron whisper something to the boy next to him… Unfortunately, so had McGonagall.

"Inside every boy, a lordly lion prepared to prance. Mr. Weasley?" She swiftly moved over to where Ron was.

"Yes?" He answered reluctantly.

"Will you join me, please?" She asked.

Melinda and Chris' faces where red after all the quiet laughing they had tried to stifle, as they watched Ron dance awkwardly with his Professor. They laughed even harder when they saw Fred and George dancing wistfully by themselves. When Melinda had calmed down she looked next to them and found her gaze locked on a pair of bright green eyes. Harry was looking at her and her brother, an amused smile on his face. Melinda couldn't help but mirror the smile back at him, however she lost sight of him as the girls immediately got up and started walking towards the boys.

She stood up and dusted herself off, ready to head back to the Common Room. She turned around to help Chris, only to find him already up and staring at her, his arms crossed, with one hand clenched, covering his mouth.

"What?" She asked, bewildered by his intense staring.

He stared at her and then his gaze darted quickly back into the room where the Gryffindor students had begun their dance lesson, before he rested his eyes back on her. He then let his arms fall casually to his side, and began to walk back towards their living quarters.

"Nothing." He answered innocently, shrugging his shoulders slightly. Melinda missed the small grin he gave himself as she silently followed her brother.

* * *

"Seamus would be a fun date. Although, he does have a problem with accidently setting the nearest things to him on fire…"

The next day Hermione had found herself in the presence of one Melinda Halliwell. She had to admit to herself that befriending Melinda had been one of the highlights of this year. She didn't really have many girlfriends to talk to, and now that the topic of boys and dresses was coming up (although she wasn't really into that kind of talk) she was glad to have someone besides Ron and Harry to go to.

She had just finished telling Melinda that Viktor Krum had asked her to the Ball, and now they were on the topic of who would be a good candidate for Melinda.

"I guess he and I would have that in common them." Melinda grinned devilishly at her friend before flipping through another page of Hermione's favorite book, _Hogwarts, A History. _They were currently hiding out in the library, the sun shining brightly through the window and onto the table that they were situated at.

"But it wouldn't really matter if he doesn't end up asking me." Hermione looked at her friend, "You could just ask him, you know."

Melinda shook her head, "Nope. Believe it or not, we Halliwells are the romantic kind. Old fashioned. Which means my date will have asked _me, _not the other way around."

Hermione shrugged her shoulders and continued writing her essay, "If you say so." After a few minutes of silence, Hermione spoke up, eyes still on her parchment. "You know Ron or Harry haven't found dates either. It's a bit pathetic really. They are going for dates based solely on looks. Completely shallow if you ask me."

Melinda rolled her eyes at the boys' density, "But then again they are teenage boys."

"Speaking of teenage boys, how are your brothers getting along with dates?" Hermione asked, placing the finishing touches on her Charms essay.

Melinda sighed, before closing the book and resting her head on it. Her reply was a bit muffled, but still legible for Hermione to hear.

"They had girls lining up the minute they all found out about the Ball and that they were both single." She thought back to the pretty French girl who Wyatt was taking, who giggled at every word he said, but whom Melinda had deemed nice enough, and then to Katie Bell, a Gryffindor who had up and asked her other brother to the Ball. Melinda lifted her head and slid the book out of the way, crossing her arms onto the table, and then looking at the curly haired girl across from her.

"How ridiculous is it that my brothers can get dates within seconds, and I can't even get one guy to look my way?" She complained, not caring that her voice sounded very close to whining. This was Hermione after all and she had complete trust in the girl. Although that trust was slowly dissipating as Hermione started laughing softly. Melinda glared at her, and Hermione lifted a hand to her mouth, trying to hold in her giggles.

"I'm so sorry Melinda, but you are so oblivious!" Melinda looked offended, but Hermione began to quickly explain. "Do you not notice the glances you receive from most of the boys in this school?" Melinda looked at her doubtfully, before Hermione leaned in and whispered to her.

"You see that boy at the table behind you? Ravenclaw, with dark curly hair?" Melinda turned her head slightly to the boy in question only to find him already staring at her. He cast her a smile, in which she returned, before he looked down at his books, a wide grin on his face. Melinda turned back to see Hermione with a knowing smile on her face.

"Everett Morrison. Fifth year. He's been constantly looking over here for the past hour you've been here in the library." Hermione looked down at her parchment before deeming it finished and slowly closing it. Melinda was staring at the paper, lost in her own confused mind.

"Then why hasn't he come over here to talk to me?" She asked confused. Hermione shook her head slightly before addressing the American.

"Because according to him and every other boy here, you have two very powerful, very protective older brothers. Not to mention he's assumed that you and Harry will be going together." She explained.

Melinda looked at her, at first lost and then slightly aggravated. "You mean to tell me that the reason no one has asked me is because they're intimidated by my _brothers_?" She whispered harshly.

"And the fact that you're dating Harry." Hermione responded, attention fully on Melinda.

"But we're not really dating!"

"But everyone thinks you are because so far you haven't denied it." Melinda leaned back into the chair and crossed her arms. She eyed her friend.

"Okay, you were right, Harry and I should've set the record straight, but I didn't think anyone would take those stupid columns seriously." She sighed and Hermione leaned over the table to pat her friends arm sympathetically.

"It'll be fine. Word will get around that you're in need of a date and the boys will come flocking to ask you." Melinda was doubtful but nonetheless agreed to appease her friend. "You better be right Granger."

* * *

"I _hate _you, Hermione." Melinda spit out at her friend. It was two days before the Yule Ball and although she got glances in her direction, no one had asked her. She was starting to think that her brothers were warding off the guys on purpose.

Hermione scoffed at her friend who was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room. "It's not my fault you have yet to ask someone."

"Well it isn't my fault I listened to the _brightest witch of her age._" She glared sullenly at the table. "You told me people would stop believing Harry and I were dating."

Hermione looked sadly at her friend, "I must have misjudged the speed of which gossip travels through this school. I'm sorry Melinda. But there are two days left."

"Don't remind me." Melinda stood up from the table and went to go sit in front of the fire. Watching the flames was soothing for her. As she sat down she looked behind her and noticed Harry lying down on the couch, his golden egg from the First Task lying on his stomach. He was looking sadly at the flames, his green eyes flickering over to her once he realized she was there.

"How long have you been there, Harry?" She asked him curiously. Harry stayed in his position, before softly answering.

"I dunno, awhile?" Harry was still reeling from his rejection from Cho Chang. Of course she had someone to take her to the Ball. And obviously that guy had to be Cedric Diggory. Harry sighed deeply, before resuming his staring at the flames. Cho's voice rang through his mind. '_I'm sorry Harry, but someone's already asked me. And I've told him, I'd go with him.' _And she truly had looked sorry. However it was her last statement that had caught him off guard. _'I really am sorry, Harry. But I thought you were taking Melinda? That's what I've heard.' _Harry didn't really know how to respond to that so he had simply nodded his head before turning back into the owlery.

He brought his mind back to the present and looked over to Melinda, who had turned her head to gaze into the fire, her knees tucked under chin, and her arms encircling her legs. He was pretty sure she had a date already. He had heard the talk from many of the blokes stating that they would be the one to take the female Halliwell. He hadn't asked her yet who he was going with, but he was sure it was one of the Hogwarts students.

He was brought out of his thoughts as he heard the Common Room door open and a noisy group come in. He immediately walked over, as did Melinda and Hermione, when he realized that Ron was amidst a group of girls, looking very pale.

"What happened to you?" He asked his best friend. However it was Ginny that answered.

"He just asked Fleur Delacour out." Melinda let out a gasp of disbelief and Hermione asked, 'What?'

"What did she say?" Harry asked.

Again a female voice answered him, although this time it was Hermione's. "No, of course."

Ron shook his head and Hermione cupped her hands over her mouth, "She said yes?"

"Don't be silly." Ron finally spoke up, "There she was walking by. You know how I like it when they walk." Harry gave a quick nod. "I couldn't help it. It just sort of slipped out."

"Actually, he sort of screamed it at her. It was a bit frightening." Ginny told the group.

Harry looked at his friend sympathetically, "What did you do then?"

"What else?" Ron looked up at Harry, "I ran for it. I'm not cut out for this Harry. I don't know what got into me."

Harry nodded and then turned to Melinda as Ron started babbling about the Beauxbatons girls. She was looking at Ron, being sympathetic but when she looked up and Harry met her eyes, he could see that they were dancing with amusement. He couldn't help but smile at her, but looked back to Ron who was still traumatized.

He saw Melinda look at her watch and then start to bid Hermione goodbye. She then gave Ron a gentle pat on the shoulder and turned to Harry to give him a gentle squeeze on the arm. Harry watched her walk out the Common Room and hadn't even realized he was doing so until he heard someone clear their throat behind him.

He turned around, a slight blush creeping up to his face when he saw the Patil twins giving him smirking looks.

He cleared his throat, before addressing them, "Hi Parvati, Padma." They gave small giggles before replying in unison, "Hi Harry."

Suddenly, hearing Ron's voice behind him, he got an idea and brought the girls farther away so Ron couldn't hear him.

"Do either of you have dates for the Ball?" They giggled again, which annoyed Harry a bit, before Parvati answered him. "I do, but Padma doesn't. Why do you ask, Harry?"

Harry inwardly sighed. He looked back to Ron, who had gone silent and was listening to Ginny. Harry decided his friend needed a date much more than he did at the moment. He could try to find a date tomorrow. He turned back to Padma who was watching him curiously.

"Would you mind going to the Ball with Ron, Padma? Please?" Padma looked over to the ginger before looking to her sister, who looked encouragingly back at her.

"I suppose." She answered.

"Great." Harry exclaimed, before quietly telling them, "And please don't mention this to Ron."

They nodded before Parvati smiled and looked to Harry. "So Harry, do you know what Melinda's dress is going to look like? Although I doubt it matters very much. She's already so beautiful." Parvati asked, a slight bitter tone laced in her voice.

Harry was confused for a moment. "Er, what?"

Padma mistook his confusion. "Oh! Of course she'd keep it a secret! So romantic." Harry interrupted the girls giggling session.

"What do you mean? How am I supposed to know what dress she's wearing? Shouldn't her date worry about that?" The sisters looked at each other before Parvati replied.

"Harry, you _are _her date. Everyone knows that, you both are dating after all. You should've heard the fuss all the boys were making. So many wanted to ask her out, but none did. Partially because her brothers eyed them a little harshly. And well, we all knew she was going with you." She said.

Harry couldn't help but think back to what Cho had said. He then remembered some of the glares he had received from the guys at Hogwarts. He assumed it was because of him being a champion, but now he knew it was for a whole different reason.

"She was never asked… because she was going with me..?" Harry asked quietly to himself. The twins nodded, slightly lost before bidding him goodbye. Harry felt a rush of guilt, blaming himself for Melinda not having a date. But at the same time he was relieved because he knew how he could fix both their problems.

Harry suddenly rushed out of the Common Room to try and catch Melinda before she reached her dormitory. He knew which wing the Magic School group was, but he didn't know exactly where. However he was relieved when he saw a girl with straight dark hair running down her back.

"MELINDA!" He heard his voice echo around the empty corridor, and Melinda turned, slightly alert, before realizing it was Harry. As he caught up to her, she looked at him, somewhat confused.

"Are you okay?" She asked him, slightly concerned.

He nodded, slightly out of breath before remembering why he was there and began to get nervous. "Yeah, I just, er, wanted to ask you something."

She nodded, waiting for him to continue. He really didn't know how to start off, so he asked her a simple question. "Do you have a date? For the Yule Ball, I mean?" He was nervously holding his hand, as he saw Melinda lightly blush and look down.

"Um, no. It seems my brothers are a lot more intimidating then I realized and that many guys seemed to think I was actually dating you." She looked up to him and held out her hands, "Not that I'm blaming you, but you know. That's just the way it is, I guess."

Harry nodded glad she wasn't going with anyone before getting nervous again. This was almost as bad as when he had asked Cho. "Well, I don't have a date either, er, so maybe we can… go together?" He sighed, glad that it came out a lot better than his first try.

Melinda's eyes narrowed a bit, "Am I your last resort Harry?"

Harry's eyes widened, before he started speaking fast, "What? No! No, of course not! I just had assumed that you had already had a date. Had I known that you didn't I would've asked sooner." Harry stopped as he realized his last statement was truer that he realized. He _had _wanted to take Melinda, especially after Cho had turned him down, but he honestly thought that she had a date already.

He stepped out of his thoughts and looked at Melinda, who smiled slightly at him, before replying, "Okay. I will gladly go to the ball with you, Mr. Potter."

Harry smiled widely before starting to walk backwards. "Great! Then I'll see you then! I'll meet you at the entrance to the Great Hall." Melinda nodded and waved goodbye. Harry turned around and started making his way back to the Common Room, feeling a lot happier than he had an hour ago.

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**I was going to put the Yule Ball in this chapter too, but I was thinking it over and I think it would've ended up being a lot longer than I wanted, so the Yule Ball will be next chapter. That and I'm tired. :D**

**So.. Aww, Harry and Melinda. They're adorable. And I wanted to ask you all what you think of Melinda? Do you think she is a decent character? Or do you think she should still be vanquished? lol Just let me know :D  
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**Oh, and I'm working on a cover for this story, which is fun :D So hopefully that should be up soon. I will most likely update Friday or Saturday. So look out for it then. Thanks for the reviews, alerts and favorites! We're almost at 40 reviews! Let's try to hit it with this chapter!  
**

**P.S. Did anyone see the Perks of Being a Wallflower trailer? I absolutely LOVE that book! It's a book I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read it. And I think that Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller are perfectly cast! Can't wait to see it! :D  
**


	11. Night Lights

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

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**A/N: This is probably my fave chapter so far... Be ready! :) (P.S. I deleted the part about the camera because people were right in reminding me they did work, silly me for forgetting :) But I didn't know how they would get it, so I just got rid of it because I'm too lazy to add to that!)  
**

Night Lights

Leo Wyatt had always wanted a daughter.

As soon as he had realized he loved Piper Halliwell he dreamed about not only a long, happy life with her, but a small daughter who would resemble Piper in every way. He wanted a little girl who was kind and caring, but also fiercely protective and quick witted.

Leo had two boys, one that strongly resembled him, the other whom resembled his wife. He was very blessed to have these two amazing sons, but when he found out his wife was pregnant for the third time, he secretly longed for a girl. And as Leo looked over to the center of the Common Room, watching his beautiful daughter get fussed over by his wife and sister-in-laws, he couldn't help but be thankful that he was given everything he'd ever wanted.

"Hey, Dad, can you help me with this bowtie? I think if I let Chris anywhere near it, he may try to strangle me because he knows I'm the best looking one here." Wyatt grinned at his younger brother, who scoffed and continued smoothing his hair, so that it may lie neatly on top of his head.

"Sure thing, Wyatt." Leo stepped forward and expertly did his son's tie. He looked him over and brushed any stray lint off of his son's shoulders.

"Ow! Mom!" The men looked over to the women as the youngest female clutched her head and glared at her mother.

"Sorry, sorry! But if you'd keep your head straight, no pain would come." Piper tried to reason with her daughter. Melinda grumbled quietly, but Piper caught it and shushed her.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Melinda. Your mom just may have a fit and leave you to fend for yourself." Leo chuckled and smiled as his wife glared warningly at him.

"Not helping, Leo!" She went back to tying pieces of Melinda's dark hair into an elegant array of curls at the back of her neck.

"Just a little hairspray," she applied it lightly to her daughter's hair, "and there! Finished!"

"Nu uh, not yet." Paige turned Melinda to face her, adding a swipe of rosy colored lipstick to her niece's pink lips, and capped the lipstick, "Now you're ready."

Melinda looked into the mirror and smiled when she saw her appearance. Her hair was put in gentle curls, pulled back at the nape of her neck, just a few curls falling out. Phoebe had done her make up lightly, but still beautifully. Her red dress fit her perfectly and the sparkly gold shoes she had to match completed the outfit.

She turned from the mirror and hugged her mom and aunts. "It all looks amazing! Thank you!"

Wyatt, Chris and Leo (who had left the room to finish their own grooming) entered the room and turned to look at the women.

"Look at your sister," Phoebe said, motioning to Melinda, "doesn't she look stunning?" Wyatt and Chris held soft smiles as they looked at their baby sister. Wyatt walked forward and hugged Melinda, "You look just like Mom." Melinda smiled wide at the compliment, and Piper smiled before sarcastically adding, "Hello. I'm right here. You make it sound like I've died or something."

Wyatt smiled and pulled his mother into a hug as well, "You look wonderful, Mom." She smiled and hugged her son, "Now, that's better." She laughed and walked over to stand by Leo.

Chris walked over to Melinda, "Well, at least we know you're related to us." Melinda gasped playfully and hit her brother, "What?" He asked, faking shock, "I was worried there for a while." He beamed at her, "Just joking. You look beautiful."

"Well, let's go! Time's a wastin' and your dates will be meeting you there. Now Wyatt and Chris, a lady shall never be kept waiting." Phoebe shooed her nephews out the door, before going to Melinda, "However," she whispered to her, "It's perfectly okay for a lady to keep a gentleman waiting." They shared a laugh and started walking to the entrance of the Great Hall.

"Wait! I almost forgot something." Her family, who had already started heading out the door, stopped to wait, but Melinda waved her hand for them to go on.

"Okay, Cinderella, but don't be late for the Ball!" Wyatt jokingly called out before they continued heading to the Great Hall.

Melinda rushed over to the makeshift makeup area before grabbing two small items from the table. She glanced at her reflection one last time, fixing a stray curl, before walking at a steady pace to the Hall.

* * *

Harry was waiting at the bottom of the stairs in front of the Great Hall. He was constantly fidgeting with the end of sleeves, waiting for his date. He looked around at all the people waiting in the Entrance Hall. He could tell where the men were from, British men were wearing dress robes, the Bulgarians had on a formal version of their uniform, and the Americans were all wearing suits dressed with either bow ties or neck ties.

He had just bid Ron and Padma goodbye and was still patiently waiting for Melinda. He was about to start pacing around, in a way to calm his nerves, when he heard someone stand next to him. He turned to see Katie Bell, a fellow Gryffindor Quidditch player, dressed beautifully in a deep blue gown.

"Hi, Harry. Are you waiting for your date as well?" She asked.

"Yeah, Melinda should be here any minute. And yours?" He replied.

"He's probably with your date right, now." Laughing a bit at Harry's confused look she added, "I'm going with Chris."

He nodded his head in understanding. Harry turned to look around once more, before his eyes fell on Cho, who was standing with Cedric. She was greeting Fleur and looked over to Harry and smiled. He smiled back gently, hearing Katie's soft gasp behind him.

"Wow. She looks beautiful."

Harry quickly replied, "Yeah, she does." He turned around to look at Katie, but found she wasn't looking at Cho, but at the stairs behind him. He turned to face the stairs and saw Hermione walking down, a soft smile held on her lips. Harry began to smile at her. His best friend looked lovely in her pink dress and done up hair. He was stunned when he saw Viktor Krum come to the foot of the stairs and take Hermione's hand. She caught Harry's eye and released a giggle.

"Ah, here's my date." Harry turned at Katie's remark and looked back up the stairs and saw Wyatt and Chris speed walk down the stairs, Chris stopping by Katie, and Wyatt walking over to one of the Beauxbatons girls. He nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement as they began to walk their dates into the Great Hall.

"There you are, Potter." Professor McGonagall had appeared next to him and looked around, confused before continuing, "Where's your date? You should be ready by now."

"Er, she should be here any second." He paused, "Ready, Professor?"

"To dance. It's traditional that the three champions- well, in this case four, are the first to dance." She stopped and looked at him, "Surely I told you that."

Harry just stared, "No."

"Oh!" She looked a little embarrassed before replying, "Well, now you know."

Harry felt his nerves double. He couldn't dance. The only dancing lesson he had had was when McGonagall was teaching them and even then he hadn't really paid attention. Had he known it was _required _to dance, he would've at least practiced. It was right now when he began to regret making fun of Neville, because surely his fellow Gryffindor wouldn't look a fool out there, whereas he, Harry Potter, surely would.

He looked up and found that McGonagall was now bringing in the other champions and their dates to group around him. He began looking around, growing incredibly anxious and a little annoyed at his friend. Surely she didn't think it be fun to have him waiting around here like a fool?

"Harry, you clean up well." He looked to his right and found that Hermione was standing next to him. She lifted up her hand and fixed one of his stray hairs. She leaned in close and whispered, "Don't worry, she'll be here right," Hermione looked behind Harry's shoulder and smirked, "now."

Harry turned for what felt like the tenth time that night towards the stairs, and looked to see Melinda rushing down the stairs. Every annoyed comment he was going to make towards his friend vanished as he took in his date. She looked absolutely gorgeous in a red dress that ran to the floor. Her hair was curly and pinned behind her. She came to stand by Harry and immediately started apologizing.

"I'm so sorry Harry! I got lost. Did you know your stairs moved?" She asked, irritated. "Stupid thing to do if you ask me."

She had looked around to see the other Champions and their dates staring at her. She gave them a small smile, before turning to look at Harry. He was staring at her, and once he realized he was doing so, stopped and tried to speak.

"You look-er- well," He stuttered out. Knowing what he was trying to say, she smiled and fixed the collar of his robe before replying, "You don't look too bad yourself." She winked and he gave her a brilliant smile. They turned around and Melinda found Hermione's eye before remembering something.

"Oh! Here, Hermione." She held out her hand and Hermione grasped two small flower earrings, which went perfectly with her dress. She quickly put them on, giving a swift 'Thank you'.

McGonagall then began lining them up. Melinda, wandering why they were being processed in, turned to Harry, realizing she was almost his height in her heels, and asked, "What's going on?"

Harry gave her a small grimace, "We're the first ones to start the dance." Melinda looked at him, before swiftly hitting his shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?" He exclaimed, grabbing his shoulder.

"For not telling me that we had to dance first!" Before Harry could reply, they opened the doors and began to walk in.

"You're telling me you don't know how to dance?" Harry quietly asked her, ignoring the cheers from the others in the Hall.

"Of course I know how to dance," She replied as they took their spots on the dance floor. "But it doesn't mean I like it, now quickly take ahold of my waist." Harry looked at her oddly, before she hissed, "Now!"

Luckily he listened to her just in time as the music started. As they began to a clumsy start, Melinda whispered to him, "Relax, Harry. I have back up." Harry followed her eye of vision, as she looked over her brothers and they immediately brought their dates to the dance floor and began to dance.

Chris sent a quick wink to her and Melinda smiled brightly before turning around to Harry. "We both hate dancing," Harry lifted her in time to the dance and once he had regained her hand, she continued, "We have this thing worked out. The faster people gather on the dance floor, the faster we get off. Besides, he needs to get off so that he can keep an eye on-" Melinda stopped and looked away from Harry, but he had caught her slip up.

"Keep an eye on who?" He asked her curiously. Melinda ignored him and kept up with the dance. Sure enough, many had gathered onto the dance floor. Harry had tried asking her again who her brother was keeping track of, but by then Wyatt had politely asked to take his sister's hand and he had no choice but to release her. He then went off to go sit with Ron and Padma, who were sitting sullenly at one of the tables towards the entrance of the room.

* * *

There was a reason he hated dances.

Sure, not only was he against the whole dancing aspect of it, but dances were the time when people let down their guards for a free casual night.

Which always made it the perfect time for Chris to watch in the shadows and follow those whom he had concerns about. Right now that someone was Alastor Moody.

He had left the dance floor, his siblings keeping cover for him. His date, Katie, had gone off with some friends so Chris didn't have to worry about upsetting her too much. He had been keeping track of Mad-Eye, from the moment he had entered the Hall and sat down, drinking from his flask. Chris was most interested in knowing what exactly was in it. It couldn't be alcohol, after all the man was always sober and alert, so it had to be something else.

That was another thing Chris had noticed. This man was always alert, which made tracking him a bit harder, but Chris was used to doing this. There were times he had to lay low and that was fine. It was also tough to gain a premonition, after all the man would probably hit him with a spell should Chris go up and pat his back or anything. Besides, Mad- Eye seemed to be suspicious of his family. He remembered the first night that he had entered the school, the same day they all had. Mad-Eye had lingered his gaze on his family for a while, and not in an admirable way.

Chris looked over to where Moody was holding polite conversation before starting to head outside. The American then waited a few seconds before following the Professor out the door. He then followed the sound of the iron leg making heavy footsteps before heading in the same direction. After 10 minutes of doing so, the footsteps stopped and Chris stopped, groaning quietly before tilting his head back in exasperation. He then tensed feeling something behind him. He then heard a rough voice close to his ear.

"Shouldn't you be enjoying the Yule Ball, Mr. Halliwell?" Mad-Eye asked him.

Chris nodded and faced him, "I just walked out to get fresh air. I didn't exactly think I'd get lost after being in this castle for three months."

Mad-Eye growled what sounded like a laugh, before replying, "Then you best be heading in that direction, sonny." He clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder and kept walking forward, ignoring the quick gasp that had left the brunette.

'_He was in a graveyard and in front of him was a large cauldron. There was a small rat of a man in front of him, pointing a wand at something to the left of him._

"_Bone of the father, unwillingly given,_

_Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed,_

_And blood of the enemy, forcibly taken."_

_A young man's voice began shouting and then yelling out in pain…'_

Chris opened his eyes.

It had worked.

He had gotten Mad-Eye close enough so he could have a premonition. The only problem was he didn't know what or who was being summoned. And why exactly would this premonition come off of a supposed ally of Albus Dumbledore?

But he _was_ certain that the voice of the young man shouting belonged to the guy who was currently with his sister.

* * *

Melinda had gone to sit with Harry after she saw Hermione storm off. She had just been doing a rather crazy dance with Wyatt, which was to keep her parents entertained enough to realize that their middle child was missing.

"What was that about?" She asked the messy haired boy as she tried to regain her breath.

Harry just shook his head, "Don't even ask."

It was at this point that Padma, Ron's date, had learned that _her_ date was just going to sit there, so she stormed off as well. Melinda looked at Harry and realized her friend needed to be removed from some kind of awkward situation.

"Hey, Potter… Why don't we go see how fast I can melt the snow?" She grabbed his hand and waved her free hand to Ron and continued to lead Harry outside the Hall.

It was when they had gone outside and hit the cold air that Melinda realized she had left her coat inside. Harry however had noticed her shivering and took off his long coat.

"Here, you can have mine. I'd rather not go back in there right now." Melinda accepted and they continued at a steady pace around the castle.

"Why do Ron and Hermione fight all the time? If I didn't know any better I'd say they like each other." She had noticed how upset Ron had been watching Hermione dance with Viktor.

"They've been like that since first year. I honestly have no idea what goes on with them. But it's also odd having to be the one to simmer their arguments," He looked up at Melinda, "So I thank you for rescuing me." They shared a laugh and ended up at the same balcony where they had first introduced each other.

Harry looked at her, "Do you really spend the time melting snow?"

Melinda let out a soft laugh, "When I'm bored, you'd be surprised what I do." She looked over the left side of the balcony and realized she could see the courtyard where a lot of students were… _enjoying_ themselves.

She snickered, "Watch this." Harry walked up to stand close to her. "See that couple in the shadows? The girl with the yellow dress?" As Harry squinted, he saw where she was looking.

Melinda than formed a small fireball in her hand and sent it over to hit a patch of snow that was directly above the couple. It quickly melted and slid down, now water, onto the pair. As the girl gasped and started running inside, Harry and Melinda started laughing loudly, quickly ducking when they realized their laughter had echoed far enough to where the Hogwarts boy was standing.

As they sat down, resting their backs against the freezing stone wall, they continued laughing and finally calmed down once they realized how cold they were.

"Oh, here." Melinda held out her hand and in front of them a bigger fireball had formed, creating not only warmth for the both of them, but a bright blue light.

"That's better." Harry told her. She laughed and closed her eyes, taking in the heat.

Harry looked over to Melinda, taking in how calm she looked in the cold night. She opened her eyes, feeling a gaze on her and turned to meet Harry's bright green eyes staring at her, looking even more hypnotizing in the blue light.

"You have really beautiful eyes, Harry. I've never seen someone with such a color." Harry blushed and looked down, before replying, "They're my mother's eyes. At least that's what everyone tells me."

"I'm really sorry about your parents, Harry. They seemed like really great people." Melinda remembered them briefly discussing their families, and how Harry didn't really have anything to say about his. She knew his Aunt, Uncle and cousin were down right terrible to him, and that Harry had no great memories with his parents.

"Yeah, they did." They both stared at the fire, slowly revolving around in place, lost in their own thoughts.

"Melinda, when we first met, you had told me about an earthquake-" Melinda quickly cut him off.

"I don't want to talk about it, Harry." She replied, harshly.

Harry was surprised she reacted so strongly to it, and Melinda felt bad at yelling at him, so she continued in a low voice, "I'm sorry, but it's not something I like to talk about."

After a few moments of tense silence, Melinda's soft voice broke through, "When I'm really scared my powers react… _strongly_… I don't like to be put in a position where I can't control what's happening to the people I care about."

Harry was quietly listening, not wanting to stop Melinda. She continued slowly.

"There is a reason I'm viewed as the most powerful, Harry. It scares me sometimes. With so much power comes _so much _responsibility. And with so much responsibility come lots of things that can go wrong should you make the wrong choice."

Her brown eyes stared intensely at Harry, "You're my friend, and I don't want to scare you. But you need to know that whether or not I like it, trouble follows me." Melinda thought back to the nightmare she had first had that had led her to her friendship with this kind boy.

"I don't want to see you get hurt. Harry, I need you to promise me, should something be wrong, you call my name. Even if I'm nowhere near you, yell it out, and I will hear you."

Harry noticed the strong and worried voice that Melinda spoke in. He wasn't sure why she became so worried all of a sudden, but he found himself not able to look away from her serious stare.

"I will. Don't worry, Melinda I will." Melinda nodded and let out a shaky breath before looking into the fire again. She was aware that Harry was staring at her, but she didn't care. For some reason she had been reminded of her nightmare and the flash from the Killing Curse. If Harry did indeed attract so much trouble she needed to know that she could be there to help him.

She wasn't half white lighter like her brothers, (her father was mortal when she was conceived) but for some reason, if someone in her family was in trouble, she could faintly hear them calling her name. She desperately hoped this would be the case with Harry. And even though she wasn't sure why she could hear only her family members, for some purpose she knew she'd be able to hear his call.

"It's getting late, we should head back." Harry pulled Melinda out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see that Harry was holding his hand out to her. She grasped it and he pulled her up, the fire extinguishing as they turned to leave.

After walking in silence, Melinda spoke up, "What scares you the most?"

Harry, taken aback by her random question answered, "Dementors." And then he thought some more, "They make me remember my mother's voice."

"That's good isn't it?"

Harry shook his head, "Dementors make you feel the worst you've ever felt. They make you relive your darkest fears. When I hear her voice, it's of the last scream she ever gave."

Melinda quickly tried to apologize, "I'm so sorry, Harry! I didn't know."

Harry shook his head, "Don't worry about it." However, Melinda had felt his distress and walked over to grasp his arm, pulling herself close to him.

"Nightmares," she whispered. "Whenever I have a terrifying nightmare, a thunderstorm strikes up, and the rain and thunder continues until I've calmed down, which I will admit will take a while. The more frightened I am, the stronger the storm."

"This scares you because you can't control it or the outcomes it may bring." Harry stated. Melinda merely nodded.

They realized they were close to the hall when they could hear slow music playing. They then heard familiar shouting and looked up to see Ron and Hermione arguing.

"You know the solution than, don't you?" Hermione was clearly crying, although tears of frustration or sadness, Melinda couldn't tell, as she followed Ron who was trying to walk away.

"Go on." Ron said. Hermione stopped directly in front of him, cutting him off from the stairs.

"Next time there's a ball, pluck up the courage and ask me before somebody else does. And not as a last resort!"

Ron looked shocked as he slid past her, "Well that's—I mean, that's just completely off the point… Harry."

Ron had finally saw Melinda and Harry who were watching the fight, silently staying out of it.

Hermione rushed up to the two of them, "Where have you been?" Before either could explain, Hermione was shouting commands, "Never mind, off to bed both of you!"

Melinda slowly unwound her arm from Harry's, having forgotten she was tangled so close to him. They gave each other surprised looks before Harry walked past the two girls and up close to Ron.

As he and Harry started walking up the stairs, the girls overhead Ron tell Harry, "They get scary when they get older."

Hermione, having heard, quickly shouted, "Ron! You spoiled everything!" This caused the boys to run up the stairs faster, and Melinda overheard Harry ask, "What's going on?"

As the boys ran out of sight, Melinda looked as her friend walked to the steps and sat down, allowing the tears to flow freely. She sat down next to Hermione and pulled her into a hug, letting the sad girl cry into her.

Hermione cried, "I just don't understand!"

Melinda thought back to her night with Harry and her immediate want to _need_ to protect him and the way she had felt so comfortable held next to him.

"I don't think anyone does, Hermione."

* * *

_A snowed on gravestone come into sight with a grim reaper standing next to the headstone._

_He was now climbing up the same creaky stairs, peering into the open room. The chair came into sight, and a croaky voice demanded, "Let me see it again." _

_The young man rolled up his sleeve to reveal a crude moving mark, a mashing of a skull and snake. _

"_Yes, the time is close now."_

_The small rat of a man leant forward to view the markings on the man's arm. _

_A brunette woman walked forward._

"_I'm sorry, my lord. I did not know they would come. I left no trace to be followed."_

"_Silence." The hoarse voice commanded, "They have not yet made a move to suggest they know anything."_

_The voice then turned a tone eager, "Harry. At last!" Everyone in the room turned to look at the doorway. The woman created a steady bright orange fireball in her hand, staring intimidatingly at him._

"_Step aside, Wormtail, so I can give our guest a proper greeting!"_

_A bright light rushing forward…_

Harry awoke with a start, feeling sweat on him and his blankets wrapped around his body.

"You all right, Harry?" He looked forward to see Neville in front of his bed.

"I just got in… Me." Neville then spun over to his bed, humming.

Harry wiped his face and jumped as a roll of thunder hit outside. He didn't put on his glasses but then again he didn't need to as he heard the snow storm pick up and continuous beats of thunder hit the sky loudly.

* * *

**Whoo! That was fun :D This took a different direction than I had first intended. Melinda and Harry were going to have another conversation about something as equally important, but I guess that will be moved to later! But I love those two, they're starting to grow on me :D**

**This is the longest chapter I've written, 11 pages! So that's an accomplishment :D  
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**I may not update again until Tues, but hey! I got this up when I said I would (a couple of hours later, but it's all good!). Please excuse any mistakes. I typed it fast and then edited it once before posting and I'm tired, so that's not a good combination!  
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**Thanks for all the reviews guys! Since this is probably my favorite chapter so far, and filled with lots of important stuff, maybe I can get 6 reviews for this? I don't know, just try! Otherwise I'll think I did horribly with this chapter!**

**See you in a couple of days!  
**


	12. Water Savior

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

**A/N: I think the timing and weather in the beginning is a bit off, but just go along with it :D And thanks goes out to JayFireweaver for helping me with the spell! Enjoy :)  
**

* * *

Water Savior

Harry didn't see Melinda until a few days later, and by then the snow had cleared up, but it was still a bit chilly outside. He was currently in the Great Hall where it was filled with students eating lunch and had finally stopped talking about their night at the Yule Ball, although now it was being turned into conversations about the Second Task. It made his stomach turn so instead he looked at his red headed friend in front of him. Ron and Hermione had seemed to silently agree that it was best not to mention their argument that night. And although neither one of them ever brought up Viktor Krum, it seemed as if the fight had never happened.

Harry was jolted out of his thoughts as a heavy black cloth was dropped on the table and then he heard the sound of a body dropping in the seat next to him.

"Here you go, Harry. I forgot I took this with me." Harry took the cloth into his hand (which he now saw was his coat from his dress robes) and realized he too had forgotten that she was wearing it when Hermione had sent him and Ron to bed.

"Thank you." He replied. As Melinda started making small talk with Ron, Harry couldn't help but study her. Although she was talking in a bright voice to Ron, he couldn't help but notice she had slight dark marks under her eyes. He was then brought back to what had happened the night of his dream. However, before he could bring it up, someone else did.

"So, Melinda, I've been meaning to ask you." Ron swallowed the food he head in his mouth before continuing, "I don't know if you remember, but that night of the Ball, there was a snow storm."

Melinda nodded while taking a bit of her sandwich, "Yes, Ronald I'm aware there was."

"Well, there was thunder as well, and I remember the snow storm picking up quite a bit. Now normally I'd sleep through that, but it was just so bloody loud." Melinda froze, but only Harry had seemed to notice as Ron continued, "And it seemed to go well into the morning. What I wanted to ask was if there was any way thunder could happen during the snow storm? I mean, I've never experienced it."

Melinda looked at her plate, while casually replying, "I wouldn't know actually. I'm from California and it never snows there."

"Oh. Well, I figure since you're in tune with the earth, you'd know about it." Ron shrugged, ending the conversation, before diving back into his plate.

Melinda seemed content with the end of Ron's questions, but Harry wasn't. He grabbed a napkin and reached over to Melinda's plate. She gave a shout of discontent when Harry placed her sandwich into the napkin and then handed it to her. He stood up, ignoring Ron and Melinda's baffled looks, before he grabbed his coat and shoved it into his bag.

He swung it over his shoulder and looked at Melinda who was staring at him, bewildered.

"Come on then." He told her casually, as if this was something he did on a daily occurrence, "You told me that you were going to help me with my Potions homework. Hermione is helping Ron, so you volunteered to help me, remember?"

Melinda looked at him, nodding her head slowly, while Ron was eyeing the two suspiciously. She gave him a wide smile before getting up and following Harry out of the Hall.

Harry led her to a quiet place by the Black Lake. They sat down comfortably and in silence, Harry allowing Melinda to finish most of her sandwich before talking to her.

"Where have you been the past few days?" He asked her.

"Around." She replied vaguely.

Harry ignored it and instead said, "You know, I think what Ron was saying was true. I've never heard thunder during a snow storm." He was casually playing with the leaves on the grassy floor as he waited for her to say something.

Melinda was silently finishing up her sandwich, trying to tame the fierce argument going on in her head. How exactly was she supposed to explain that she had the same nightmare again? Only this time, a demon and a few evil wizards _had said his name_? Or that Chris had a premonition of Harry in great pain, possibly somewhere in a graveyard, which was also a new part of her nightmare?

Was she supposed to tell Harry that her and her brothers had managed to get past the Hogwarts barrier and spend the past few days going through the Book of Shadows, trying to find out who this woman demon was? And how, when that didn't work, they snuck into the library at Magic School and spent the time trying to find out anything they could?

How was she going to tell Harry, her friend who had been in so many dangerous situations (not because he wanted to but because it was brought upon him) that she had spent last night with Wyatt and Chris in the Underworld? And not only were they dealing with demons, but they were also trying to find out any information they could about this new threat?

More importantly, how does she tell Harry, a boy who is possibly her closest friend, that the reason she was doing all this is because she had a premonition (a power which she doesn't have) of people who want to kill him?

'_Yeah,' _she thought to herself, '_That would go well.'_

She hadn't noticed that quite a few minutes had gone by in silence. Harry was still there, patiently waiting, moving on to stripping strands of grass from the ground.

"I know you know I had a nightmare. I had pretty much told you the signs hours before it happened." She lifted her gaze from the grass and onto Harry's face, which was staring at her.

"But, Harry," She began to think of how she had been lying to her parents and Aunts, and how her and her brothers where the only ones who knew the lengths they had gone to in order to keep the green eyed boy safe from an unknown possible threat.

"I need you to realize that some things need to stay in the family. You understand that don't you?"

The minute the sentence had left her mouth, she regretted it. And by the look on Harry's face, she could tell it wasn't something he had expected from her.

"Harry I'm—"

"Of course." He answered emotionlessly, "I understand." Before Melinda could say anything else, Harry had stood up and walked away.

* * *

It was the night before the Second Task and Melinda hadn't talked to Harry in two weeks. She had tried, but Harry obviously knew the castle better than she had and was able to avoid the young Halliwell. Hermione had pleaded on her side for Harry to just listen, but Harry was stubborn and refused to listen. Besides, not only were her and her brothers still traipsing about the Underworld, but Harry had to focus on the Task at hand, which meant both were still too busy to find time to speak to one another.

If he even wanted to speak to her that is.

She knew she was wrong to say what she had said. She hadn't been thinking at the time. She had beaten herself up over how she had brought up family to Harry. How could she have been so thoughtless? And her family wasn't making it any better. Her Aunt Phoebe had been using her empathy power to figure out what was troubling her niece, but lucky every time Melinda was asked what was wrong, Phoebe also detected her annoyance, which meant everyone eventually left her alone. To make matters worse the school had gotten ahold of Harry and Melinda's situation and were calling it a 'lover's quarrel'.

She was currently in the Hogwarts library, looking up different potions books. She was pretty good at potions, not as good as Chris, but close enough. It also helped that most of the potions were the same, but there was a lot here she hadn't even heard of, and she wasn't ashamed to admit it intrigued her. It was dark outside and the Second Task was in the morning. She hadn't seen Hermione lately because she was helping Harry, and Ron was staying loyally by Harry's side to help as well.

She had sat down at a table and was reading through the pages when she heard the heavy footsteps of Mad-Eye Moody. She was distrustful of the Professor after Chris had told her about his premonition. He was too closely connected to her dream, and it made her uncomfortable.

She had followed him and crouched behind one of the bookshelves when she realized that Harry, Ron and Hermione were the ones Mad-Eye was addressing.

"Go. Now." He was dismissing them somewhere and as Ron and Hermione walked away, Moody stood next to Harry for a moment. She thought he was just seeing what books he had collected.

"Halliwell!" She jumped at her name, "Help Potter put away his books."

"Damn eye._" _She said quietly to herself.

She slowly went to go stand by Harry, who was stacking up some books on the table. He nodded his head as a form of hello, but she still knew it was tense between them. She leaned against the table he was sitting at before starting to talk.

"Look, Harry. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean that at all. To be honest I wasn't thinking." She talked fast, wanting to continue before Harry could stop her. "I've just been stressed lately, and I've been hiding things from my family, and when you had wanted to know, I just—"

She paused, and saw he was staring at the stack of books in front of him, but she knew he was listening.

"There are just some things that I can't tell you. Things you don't deserve to know and it's not that I don't trust you, I do. It's just that I can't expose some things to you… I really am sorry, Harry."

He was still looking at the table and made no sign of moving or looking her way. She sighed, figuring she'd try again later before she felt a hand on her wrist.

She looked to see Harry standing, looking calm and a bit sheepish. "It's fine. I overreacted." It was a short two lines, but it seemed to clear the air a bit.

She gave him a quick hug before letting go. "I still shouldn't have said that." He gave her a closed mouthed smile and she realized he was close to falling asleep.

"Why are you awake anyway? Shouldn't you be sleeping for the Task tomorrow?" Harry reddened a little bit before he sat down in the chair he was in earlier.

He mumbled something and Melinda, having not heard, asked him to repeat it.

"I don't know how to get through the Second Task." Melinda gasped before spotting the egg on the table.

"Harry the task is hours away!"

"I know, Melinda. That's why Ron, Hermione and I were here."

She sighed and sat next to him, "Do you know what the task is?"

When Harry finished reciting the egg's message and their interpretation of it, Melinda crossed her arms and stared at him.

"You need to breathe underwater. For an hour." The tone in which she said this made Harry feel a little stupid.

"Why do you say it like that?"

She leaned in close to him and Harry felt himself blush a little before focusing on what Melinda was saying. "Harry. Do you remember who I am?"

Harry looked at her, hopefully, "You mean to say you know how to help me?"

She rolled her eyes and stood up. "Potter, I could've sworn the reason we started talking was so that I could help you in the Tournament. So let me do so and you go to sleep."

She walked away and Harry watched her go. She was right and besides, he really didn't want to have to do this by himself, so he grabbed his egg and headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

* * *

Melinda found herself running to the Black Lake, where the Second Task was almost starting. She had accidentally woken up about 20 minutes ago, but luckily she had finished the potion and spell that would allow Harry to breathe underwater long enough to finish the task.

She jumped into one of the boats and was waiting impatiently as it was taken to the middle of the lake where the task would be held. Her family was already there waiting, and fortunately, so was Harry.

"Melinda! Where have you been?" He exclaimed when he saw her. "If you hadn't noticed the Task is about to start!"

"Then I am not _that _late. Where are Ron and Hermione?" She looked around to find Harry standing next to a tall boy with messy hair, crooked teeth and slightly pointed ears.

"Oh, Melinda this is Neville. Neville, Melinda." Melinda gave a smile and Neville seemed to blush a little before muttering a small 'Hello'.

"Arrived on the nick of time, eh, Halliwell?" Melinda looked to see Mad-Eye come up behind Harry.

She ignored him as Harry started talking, "Did you manage to find anything, Melinda? Because if you did, I'd be grateful if I could get it _now._" She could tell he was starting to get nervous.

"Yes, here." She pulled out a small bottle from her pocket and a piece of paper. "Drink this right now." Harry had no time to register the light blue liquid as Melinda uncorked it and forced Harry to drink it.

She listened as Dumbledore was announcing the start of the Task to the crowd, "…After that they'll be on their own, no magic to save them..."

While Harry was sputtering from the after taste of the potion, she started speaking to him hurriedly, "This potion will last for exactly an hour. It will allow you to breathe underwater, so do what you need to do and hurry back up here."

Harry didn't feel any different, and looked to Melinda for answers as Dumbledore continued saying, "You may begin —"

"The potion will start working after I recite this," she held up the paper in her hand.

"—at the sound of the cannon."

"But you need to be underwater before I can start the spell." She smiled widely at him before shoving him off the dock as the cannon went off.

She then quickly opened the folder paper and started reciting,

"_An hour long this spell should last,_

_In order to complete this awful task,_

_For him to save what has been spared,_

_Allow him to breathe the lake water like air." _

She folded up the paper quickly and looked into the water, next to her two other Gryffindor boys, including Neville were trying to do the same.

"What's the matter with him?" The Irish Gryffindor asked his friend.

"I don't know, I can't see him." He responded.

Suddenly Melinda felt her shoulders be grabbed and was forcibly twisted around to find herself face to face with Neville, "Oh my god! You've killed Harry Potter!"

Before she could respond a huge splash was heard and they turned to see a body jump out of the water and spin, shouting a "Yeah!" before diving back in.

The Gryffindor boys laughed and so did Melinda, as she wondered exactly why the spell had given him fins.

Close to thirty minutes had passed before it was announced that the Beauxbatons champion, Fleur Delacour had been taken out of the Task. By this time, all of Melinda's family was down on the bottom level of the stands, waiting for Harry to surface, as well as Ron and Hermione.

She had been told by her father that Ron was Harry's rescue and that Hermione was Viktor Krum's. She smiled a little at the aspect of Hermione being Krum's 'treasure' but was still nervous and just wanted to see her friends surface.

To make matters even tenser, Mad-Eye was pacing back and forth, constantly looking into the water and then back to his pocket watch. Chris had finally had enough of it when he shouted as calmly as he could to him,

"I had no idea you were such a big fan of the game."

Mad Eye stared at him, still pacing before replying in his rough voice, "As a Professor it is my duty to make sure the students are safe."

"Are you sure about that?" Chris asked.

Mad-Eye gave him a nasty look, before Piper cut in, "Cut it out! What has gotten into you, Chris?" She asked her son.

Chris merely shrugged, "Nothing."

At that moment a splash was heard and the crowd started cheering. They looked over to see that Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang had surfaced and Melinda silently groaned. She looked at her watch and saw that there were less than 10 minutes left.

After the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had been brought up and given towels, another splash was heard and Melinda turned to see that Hermione and Krum had made it. The Durmstrang boys started cheering and Melinda leaned over to reach a hand to her friend.

As she pulled her up and handed her a towel she said, "So you mean that much to Krum, huh?"

Hermione blushed and shushed her before looking around and worryingly asking her, "Harry hasn't come up yet?"

"No, but he needs to hurry, the spell I cast only last an hour, and he has about five minutes left." The two girls continued looking into the water.

* * *

She rushed over to her Aunt Phoebe as a minute remained, "Can you use your empathy to find out where he is?"

"I'm not sure," Phoebe closed her eyes and searched for Harry. She was then overcome with a sense of fear. "He's scared right now." She told her niece, who knelt down to peer into the water.

As the exact moment the clock rung twelve, two heads popped out of the water and Melinda saw it was Ron… but not Harry. In his place was a little girl, who she assumed was supposed to be the girl Fleur was to rescue. She ignored them as Hermione and Fleur went to go help the two.

"I can't sense him, Melinda. But maybe you can." Her Aunt told her.

Melinda was still ogling the water, her and the other spectators waiting anxiously for the young champion to surface.

"How?"

"You are able to control and manipulate the water at will, Melinda," her father's soothing voice came from over her. She felt him kneel next to her and place a comforting hand to her shoulder.

"No, no I can't! I can't control any of that yet!" She told her father, nervousness in her voice.

"Then learn to do so now. Just close your eyes and breathe. Ignore everything else around you." She hesitated before doing as she was told and tuned out the voices of the frantic people around her. Her father's voice was the only thing she heard.

"Now focus on the water around you, in the air, and in the lake." It took a few seconds but she did. She felt the soft pulsing of the waves and the comfort it was bringing. She tried to focus further on finding Harry, gently willing the water to point her in the right direction.

A second later her eyes popped open and she shouted, "There!" and threw her hand in front of her. The moment she did so, a huge rush of water pushed through the surface, and Harry was flying through onto the platform. Immediately people rushed over to him, making sure he was alright.

She shot up and walked over to him. He was spitting up water as others placed a towel on him.

Dumbledore, after making sure he was fine motioned to the judges, "I want all the judges over here now."

Fleur then made her way in front of Melinda, kneeling next to Harry.

"You saved her," she told Harry in her French accent, "Even though she wasn't yours to save. My little sister! Thank you!" She kissed him on both cheeks before moving to Ron.

"And you! You helped!" She then gave Ron kisses on the cheek as well as Melinda laughed as he seemed a bit dazed.

"Harry!" Melinda turned to see Hermione attacking Harry.

"Ow, Hermione!"

"You must be freezing!" The frazzled girl placed her towel on her friend.

"Personally, I believe you behaved admirably." She told him.

"I finished last, Hermione." He told her, sighing deeply.

Melinda helped Harry stand up and rubbed her hand on his back, her hand slightly heated to allow more warmth for her friend, "Second to last, technically. Fleur was pulled out half an hour after you all went in."

Harry seemed grateful to the heat Melinda provided before asking, "But how did I get out? Last I remember I was being attacked by grindylows and I was sure I was drowning." He then got a stern look on his face as he remembered something. "You turned me into a fish."

"The technical term is merman, Harry." She grinned sarcastically at him before answering his other question, "And I pulled you out."

He looked down at her, "But you aren't wet." His eyes widened in realization. "You used your powers! Does that mean you can control water now?"

She shrugged, although she was smiling, "Not fully, but it's a start, right?"

"Attention!" Dumbledore's voice was booming throughout the makeshift stadium.

"The winner is," he paused, "Mr. Diggory! Who showed innate command of the Bubble-Head charm." Everyone was cheering loudly, but Dumbledore kept talking.

"But seeing as Mr. Potter would've finished first, had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr. Weasley but the others as well, we've agreed to award him second place, for outstanding moral fiber!"

"Second place!" Hermione repeated excitedly to Harry. The Hogwarts supporters were cheering louder now, but the Durmstrang champions were complaining that Krum had been robbed of his place.

Igor Karkaroff stepped forward, angrily addressing Dumbledore. "The boy cheats! He used the Halliwells' magic to help him!"

Melinda, hand still on Harry, heatedly replied, "It was never stated that you couldn't ask for our help! Harry was the only one to take advantage of that! It's not my fault your champion didn't think of doing the same!"

"Then you will help Viktor in the next task!" He demanded.

"No! You're yelling at me!" She shouted back. Leo stepped in-between his daughter and the Headmaster.

"That's enough. Melinda is right, Igor. There wasn't a rule established saying you couldn't ask for our help." Leo told him calmly, but with an edge to his voice. He didn't take kindly to people yelling at his little girl.

Looking around and realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with the Americans, Karkaroff turned away furiously, leading his students to the boats.

"Melinda!" She looked beside her and Harry jumped forward, ditching the towel on his back. She hadn't noticed that her hand warming him had started to flame on the towel while she was angry at Karkaroff.

"Oh, sorry, Harry." She told him guiltily, watching Ron stomp out the small fire.

* * *

**The beginning started out a little weird to me, but oh well :) And cool! Melinda can control her powers a bit more, so that's good :)**

**Um... I really don't know what else to say lol Thanks for the reviews and story alerts! And we almost made it to 6, but what the hell, right? As long as yall are enjoying this I'm happy :D But I would know better if you would review :D But let's make it to 50 reviews with this chapter!  
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**I'll try to update on friday or saturday! And next chapter should feature some Underworld wanderings and Halliwell flashbacks! So review and I'll send a preview :D  
**

**Thanks everybody!  
**


	13. Gardens

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

Gardens

"You're lying."

Melinda let out a loud laugh," No, honestly! Cupids aren't all odd, little, ugly creatures. I should know after all, my Uncle is one."

Harry gave her a disbelieving look before looking down at the grass beneath his feet and continuing their leisure walk. It had been some time since the Second Task, and since Harry had found Barty Crouch dead. He was tired of the questions and looks he was getting from everyone, so he had wandered off close to the Black Lake. It was a while after that he found Melinda sitting there.

"Let me get this straight. Your father was a guardian angel for witches, but now he's mortal. One of your Uncle's is a muggle policeman and the other is a Cupid?" He was counting on his fingers as he repeated what Melinda had told him.

"Not to mention that your Mum and Aunts are the Charmed Ones?"

"Well, technically that's simplifying all the magical beings my father has been. And my mom and aunts aren't just the Charmed Ones. How do you expect that to pay the bills?" She let out a small laugh. "My mom owns a restaurant, my Aunt Paige is not only the Headmistress of Magic School, but also an active white lighter, and Aunt Phoebe writes a love advice column for one of the city's biggest newspapers."

"Seems… normal." Harry told her, smiling slightly.

"My mom likes to think so." Melinda walked over to stand against a tree facing the Black Lake and Harry sat next to her. He still had awhile before he was supposed to see Dumbledore, and Melinda was to meet with her brothers.

"But how can anything be normal if not even your magical life is easy?" She asked aloud.

Harry nodded his head in consensus.

"Are you nervous for the Third Task?"

The boy looked at her feet while answering, "I just want it all over with."

Melinda sat down and crossed her legs, looking at the dark calm water in front of her. "I can understand that. That way you can go back to being the normal little wizard boy you were before, right?"

Harry let out a snort and Melinda laughed loudly. However, Harry got a thoughtful look on his face and looked to the American.

"What happens after the year is over? I mean, will I never see you again?" He asked her softly.

To be honest she hadn't really thought about what would happen when the school year was over. With the craziness surrounding the Tournament and the nightly voyages into the Underworld with her brothers, she hadn't thought about the future.

"Harry, I'm not some figment of your imagination," She sent him a kind smile. "I'm not just going to disappear."

"Perhaps you could come to school here?" He questioned innocently.

"What? Attend Hogwarts?" Harry nodded. "I don't think that would be possible. I mean I have Magic School, and I don't even use wand magic—"

He cut her off, "But suppose you did? If you had a wand, then you could attend here, and I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't mind, and Hermione could help you catch up-" Melinda held up her hands to stop Harry's rambling.

"Slow down, Harry. First of all, this is a school for a different type of magic than I am. And where is all this coming from?" She asked him, slightly bewildered at his attempts to convince her to stay.

Harry tried to shrug indifferently, but Melinda could tell it was something that was bothering him. She stood up and went to move over next to him, so she was facing him instead of the lake. She could see that he was staring intensely into the water before him. He was in the same position when he started talking.

"You're… different, Melinda. I don't feel like a—like," he paused, trying to find the right way to explain how it felt being around the pretty brunette, "I feel _normal_. I don't feel like a wizard, or have to worry about so many things. I just feel like… me."

Melinda found herself staring into Harry's bright eyes. She had no idea how much her friendship had affected this boy, and in turn Melinda started thinking about him. True, she had spent a majority of her time since she came to Hogwarts spending time with the Brit, but she hadn't realized just how much. He was someone she could be normal around. He never asked about her families' abilities or hers or anything like that.

Whenever they were together, they just talked. Nothing else. It was nice to be able to just relax. And Harry had summed up their friendship perfectly. They were just _normal _with one another.

She shifted her position and leaned into Harry, ruffling his hair a bit before put an arm around his shoulders. "You honestly, are the most amazing person I know." She told him, quietly. "Besides, maybe the reason I make you feel normal is because my fame is greater than yours."

He let out a small breathy laugh before laying his head atop hers. "Impossible." She leaned up slowly to look at him and she eyed the smirk on his face.

"No one is more famous than Harry Potter." They both burst out laughing before calming down and settling into the comfortable position they were before, except this time she had her arm wrapped around his.

"Thank you." Harry told her.

Melinda looked at him. "For what?"

He shrugged, "Lots of things." He gave her a small smile.

She sat up and Harry's eyes followed her movements. "I need to tell you something." She tilted her head, "Well, show you anyway."

She looked around before spotting a small green bud in a tree away from them. She got up and gently plucked it from its small branch before kneeling down in front of Harry.

"Melinda, what are you—" She shushed him and he continued to look confused, glancing between her and the small green bud.

She looked up to make sure his eyes were focused, before looking around to make sure no one was watching. She laid the bud on the palm of her hand before Harry started to notice a faint gold shimmer start to encase it. Instantly, the bud was replaced by a full grown flower, with small purple petals.

Harry picked up the flower from her hand, and stared at it before looking at her.

"What was that?" He asked.

She took it from him and began twirling it in her hands. "When I was little, my mom tried to pick up gardening. We would go to the backyard and she would attempt to make a beautiful little garden, this was before she was convinced to open up her own restaurant."

* * *

"_Honey, hand me the little shovel right there." A five year old Melinda Halliwell obeyed her mother's request. _

_Piper looked back down to the gardening book that her oldest son had gotten for her. Leo had suggested she take up a hobby to relax. Naturally, her oldest son set out to try and help his mother do something for fun. Chris' suggestion of knitting hadn't gone to well. And sweet Melinda just wanted to be with her mother._

"_Okay," Piper said to herself, attempting to calm down. She had been outside for the past hour, getting more and more frustrated after every minute. She had been trying to break the ground in the backyard, but her attempts were futile. _

_She was already kneeling and attempted one more time to get through the tough dirt. As she was fighting with the ground, Leo had come outside to see his daughter twirling in the sun, her little dress fluttering around her. He rushed forward to pick her up and she let out a squeal, "Daddy!" _

_He laughed and shifted her to his hip. He leaned in, mock- whispering, "How's mommy doing with her flowers?"_

"_Not good." She whispered back loudly._

"_Leo," Piper's voice warned as she continued digging into the ground. _

"_Um, honey, you're supposed to use that over there to loosen the soil before digging into it." Leo then turned to his daughter, tickling her, "Otherwise mommy will be there all day trying to get into the dirt, right?"_

"_Right!" Melinda responded enthusiastically. According to her, her daddy was never wrong. _

_Leo's last comment had been the last straw for Piper. She sighed loudly, frustration hitting the air, before ripping off her sun hat and throwing the shovel in front of her. She held out her arms and thrust her hands open, making the soil in front of her explode. Melinda yelled and Leo turned his daughter to shield her from the dirt. When they turned back around, Piper had ripped open a bag of flower seeds and dropped them into the mutilated soil before covering them up and standing. She brushed herself off and put her hands on her hips, looking at her work. She nodded her head and turned around to see the shocked faces of her husband and daughter. _

_She walked up to them and planted a kiss on her daughter's head before walking into the house._

_Leo and Melinda looked at each other before he told her, "I don't think gardening is your mom's next hobby." He put her down and she wandered over to find a stray seed that hadn't made it into the ground. _

"_Why didn't mommy just ask for my help?" Leo kneeled down in front of his daughter, watching her nose scrunch up at the seed._

"_Maybe she didn't want to be scared off by your wonderful gardening skills." He told her gently, smiling widely._

_She held the seed in the palm of her hand and stared at it. Leo looked at it too, wondering why his daughter was staring so intently at it. He became stunned when gold light sheathed it and suddenly a small white flower was held in its place._

_She held it out for him to see, "See? I could've helped her." Leo looked up to his daughter's gleeful face and tried to hide his reaction._

"_Sweetheart, how long have you been doing that?" She shrugged and thought about it, her head tilting slightly before she responded, "Just a little while."_

_Leo was lost as to what to do. Piper was already freaking out because the Elders had come to inform them of the immense powers his only daughter was to have. Melinda had her fire powers in control, and she had started to cause mini wind storms in the house whenever her brothers would upset her, but now this too?_

_She was coming into her powers fast, and what scared them the most is that they had no idea when they would stop. That was the reason Piper needed to relax, she was worrying immensely over her daughter. _

_Right now, he decided, this may be something that should be kept hidden for a while._

"_Melinda, why don't we keep this a secret between us? After all, we don't want Mommy to be jealous, right? She's supposed to be the better gardener after all. "He whispered conspiratorially to his five year old. _

"_Okay, Daddy." She giggled as Leo placed the small flower in her hair._

* * *

"You _can _control the earth!" Harry exclaimed.

She shook her head, "Nope, not really. But I can make things grow. Simple." She took the flower back from him and stared at it, "I've been too scared to even try anything else."

"So you and your father are the only ones who know you can manipulate at least a little bit of the ground?" He questioned.

"And now, you." Harry met up with her warm brown eyes. He understood what this small revelation meant. She had just shared a secret with him that not even her brothers knew about.

"I won't tell anyone." Harry promised her.

She watched him, before placing the flower in the pocket of his dark jean jacket.

"I know."

* * *

**A/N: Yes, I know it's short :/ But I've been unexpectedly working all week, and have come home exhausted and not able to write. I would've added the next part where they're in the Underworld, but that was a lot I needed to type and I figured that an update now (after a week :o) would be better than an update Monday.**

**So the preview I sent is actually going to be in the next chapter :)  
**

**I changed the summary and added a book cover. What do yall think? I had the cover staged differently, but the image is small that I needed to space the characters on it. I'll try to upload it on my profile page or something.  
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**I'll try to update either Sunday or Monday. And there's only a few chapters left! So please send a review if you have not done so and do in fact enjoy the story :)  
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**Again, Harry and Melinda were going to address something else, but bam! They decided it was the right time to reveal Melinda's other little power :D  
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**I'll see you all soon!  
**


	14. Staging and Restoration

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

**A/N: I decided to delete and re-upload this chapter because it was done horribly! I want to send a huge thanks to JayFireweaver who beta'd this and had very helpful suggestions that made this chapter better! If you read it last time, you may want to re-read it because I added a few new scenes :)  
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* * *

Staging and Restoration

"We're not wrong for doing this are we?"

"Barty Crouch is dead, Melinda. Killed on Hogwarts Grounds." Wyatt reminded her.

Melinda sighed before looking at her brother, "That's not what I mean. I meant should we be hiding this from Mom and Dad?" Chris shushed them and they all ducked behind a dirt wall.

"They're busy enough as it is. Besides this confirms that what you and I have seen is coming true. It's no coincidence that we came to Hogwarts the same year someone has been found dead, or that a known wizard hero has been entered into a Tournament where people can die." Chris told them quietly, "Also, we need to show whoever is attacking that we know what's going on. Clearly, whoever killed Crouch right under our noses thinks they have the upper hand."

"Exactly, which means we need to find out whoever that demon in Melinda's vision was." Wyatt stated.

"Not a vision. Dream." She told them. She didn't like the term _vision _or _premonition_. It made it seem as if she had that power, but she didn't.

"Well, whatever you want to call it, it's real." Chris said.

Wyatt slowly led them through the Underworld, cautiously peeking around every corner. Since their parents were busy trying to find out what had happened to Barty Crouch and how someone could be murdered on the school grounds, the three siblings were able to escape the school and travel more freely in the Underworld. Wyatt and Chris were hesitant about allowing their younger sister to join them, but Melinda knew what the demon looked like, so they really had no choice.

Melinda hated the Underworld with a passion. The darkness of the labyrinth caves, the small geysers that erupted hot steam and flames, and most importantly, the demons who kept trying to kill her mother and aunts, and, occasionally, her, her brothers and her cousins. She peered into the gloom ahead, wishing that she could control the earth, so that she might sense in all directions where any demons were so they could do what they had to do, then get out. She didn't want to stay here a moment longer than she needed to. The Underworld was no place for a Halliwell. She decided to try getting her brothers to leave.

"Guys, I don't think we'll find out anything now, we should just leave. Besides, the Final Task will be starting soon and I promised Harry—" Chris held his hand up to cut Melinda off.

He motioned for them to kneel behind a dirt column as two big demons came into view. The light skinned, bald headed demon started talking in a deep voice.

As the demon spoke, Melinda felt her hopes of getting out quickly shatter.

"How are we supposed to believe her, then? She's taking direction from someone who hasn't been seen for almost thirteen years." The siblings looked at each other and then quickly turned back to the conversation.

The smaller demon started responding, "He's supposed to resurface tonight—"

"Then apparently he's stupid. Doesn't he know not to tempt the Halliwells?" The bald man asked.

He laughed darkly, "All of them are there, even the eldest children. Did they honestly believe the witches wouldn't pick up on it?"

"But they haven't found out yet, have they?" The bald one listened, "There is only one obstacle in their way, and tonight they will get rid of him, they even have someone on the inside. After that, He will reorganize everything before striking. He already had a reign of terror before, and he will be back stronger than ever and allied with our kind. The witches won't stand a chance."

He began to walk away, letting out a loud chuckle, "The plan takes effect tonight. Don't be too late to join the wrong side." The smaller man left, leaving the other one to think for a moment before he shimmered out.

The siblings stood up and processed what they had just heard. Wyatt was the first to speak.

"Can someone please tell me that they're not planning on bringing back someone evil who disappeared thirteen years ago?"

"And they're going to be allied with demons, which would mean that the _He _they're referring to isn't one." Chris added.

Melinda was staring at where the demons were, too scared to allow the truth to hit her, "And He's going to make an appearance tonight, where he will get rid of his only obstacle." An image of a lightning scar and the story of a legend crossed her mind.

"They said there's help from the inside." Wyatt reminded them.

"Moody," Chris said, crossing his arms and placing his hand over his mouth, "But they're attacking tonight during the Final Task? How in the world are they going to achieve that? There will be a lot of people there who would easily fight them off."

Wyatt took over at this point. "We need to get back to the school, the Task will be starting soon. First, let's head to the Manor, get a few potions in case we need them. If Voldemort is somehow being brought back, we need to be prepared."

Chris and Melinda nodded in agreement.

Wyatt orbed out and Chris followed soon after. After a moment, Melinda followed her brothers to their house, leaving behind a small swirl of dirt circling in the air to show that the youngest witch had been there.

* * *

By the time they had entered what had been known as the 'Quidditch Pitch', the young witches and wizards from the four schools were in the stands, filled with excitement. Wyatt, Chris and Melinda made their way up to the stands where their schoolmates were located and had already decided on a plan. The blonde Halliwell would be in the crowd, so if necessary, he would be able to shield the innocents with his force field. Chris would be in the back, watching Moody from a distance. It was also decided that Wyatt, the oldest, would be the one to tell their family that something bad might be happening in Hogwarts.

The third part of the plan was the most important. After all, the Halliwells are stronger together. But after a few minutes of trying to locate them, they discovered there was just one flaw in that revelation.

Piper, Leo, Paige and Phoebe were nowhere in the audience.

They looked around, but couldn't find anyone. They asked some of their classmates, but their family hadn't been seen for a while. Just as they were contemplating going inside the castle, the band started playing and they looked down to see that the champions were starting to make their entrance onto the small clearing right before they entered the maze.

Melinda caught her brother's eye and motioned down to the bottom before weaving her way through the yelling students and dodging their waving flags. As Dumbledore started talking to the crowd, everyone settled down and Melinda was able to arrive down to meet Harry. Since Dumbledore was announcing, and the other champions were accompanied by someone, she'd figure she'd be with him.

"Where have you been?" He whispered to her.

"Nowhere important, but I'm here now, right?" She sent him a smile and he returned it, albeit a bit nervously.

They faced forward and listened to the Hogwarts Headmaster. "Now as Mr. Diggory," the Hufflepuff's supporters went wild, and Cedric's dad held up his arm in triumph, to which Cedric quickly pulled it back down, slightly embarrassed, "and Mr. Potter," even a bigger cheering emerged from the crowd, and sparks were sent in the air by some of the Americans.

"Are tied for first position they will be the first to enter the maze, followed by Mr. Krum, (more shouts from the Bulgarians), and Miss Delacour, (cheering from the French). The first person to touch the cup will be the winner!" Cheering erupted from the crowd, yet again.

Harry and Melinda walked towards one entrance to the maze, while Cedric and Amos Diggory walked towards the other.

"Scared?" She asked him quietly.

"A little." He added reluctantly. She smiled in understanding and patted his arm.

Dumbledore called the champions over to talk to them and Melinda noticed that Moody was lurking nearby. They met eyes and Melinda gave a stern nod, before he turned away and she looked up to catch her brother hiding plainly behind some of the Hufflepuffs. He held his eyes strictly on Moody.

Harry walked back over to her and she became a bit overwhelmed, throwing her arms around the boy and holding him closely, to which Harry's arms automatically wound around her, his fear and worries evident by the way he held her. Remembering why she was scared for her friend, she decided to take this opportunity to whisper a bit of warning, aware that Moody was skulking close to them.

"Harry, do you remember what I told you?" She whispered quickly and quietly to him, her lips close to his ear. "If you're in any danger, call my name and I'll be there. Remember that." She pulled away and met his confused face, she waited for a reply and he slowly nodded.

Then she spoke aloud, loud enough for Moody to hear, "You'll be fine, Harry. Nothing's going to happen. You'll win this and we'll be right here waiting when you come back out." She gave him one more quick hug, whispering a 'Good Luck', before standing by his side, in between he and Moody.

Harry and Cedric nodded to each other, before facing the entrances to the maze. As the cannon was shot, earlier than intended, Moody gave him a pat on the shoulder and Harry started walking in.

He turned around and saw Moody pointing him to the left. He let out a small smile and looked ahead of him, seeing nothing but green. He turned around once more, becoming puzzled as to why Melinda was glaring at his Professor and then witnessed her look into the crowd, before the branches started closing the pathway and he was able to see the American's eyes meet his one more time.

Melinda turned around after losing sight of Harry and looked into the crowd. As time passed and the other two champions went in at the sound of the cannon, she still had yet to spot her family. She furrowed her brow and found her oldest brother, standing with the Magic School crowd, keeping an eye all around as he searched for his family, while still remaining in conversations with his friends, so as not to arouse suspicion. She let her gaze wander about some more and was able to spot Chris hiding behind a group of Hufflepuffs. She could see he had his gaze set on Moody and was comforted knowing that her brother wouldn't let the sneaky wizard escape.

Almost an hour had passed and Melinda was getting anxious. Fleur Delacour had been rescued from the maze, appearing dazed before the crowd. The Beauxbatons girls were disappointed, but more concerned with making sure their friend was okay. Getting bored from sitting on the ground, the American found her gaze lingering to the Gryffindor section and found a head of messy curls. She got up and entered the stands, making her way to her friend.

"Hermione," she started, "how are you holding up?" Hermione made room for her friend to sit on the bench, but before she could answer her, Ron squeezed in between the two and faced her.

"She's been bloody mental!" He exaggerated loudly, "When the sparks shot up in the air she was gripping my arm tightly. Look! I even have marks!" The red head held out his arm and pulled up his sleeve, showing small crescent shaped marks in his skin.

"What if that had been Harry and he had been seriously hurt?" Hermione said defensively, "You would have done a lot worse than a few marks into my arm." Ron swiveled around in his seat and retorted something but Melinda wasn't listening. Instead of entertaining herself with another one of the twos arguments, she said a quick bye (that went ignored by the two) and headed back down to her original position near the maze.

She sat down in the comfy grass and enjoyed the wind outside, blowing softly throughout the arena. She plucked a small blade of grass, examined it, then laid it down on the grass. As night approached, she summoned a fireball in her hand and laid it out before her. After a few minutes of throwing rocks and dead leaves into the flame, she was confused as the fireball suddenly went out after a particularly strong gust of wind went by, seeming to aim for the fire. She summoned another one but quickly distinguished it as a foreboding sensation went through her.

Feeling anxious, she stood up and stared at where she had last seen Harry go through. Still feeling uneasy, she didn't notice Moody give a satisfying smirk.

And since Moody's back was to him, neither did Chris.

* * *

Harry landed hard on the plush grass. For a second he expected to hear the sound of cheering and applause from the crowd, for both he and Cedric, and to find Melinda pulling him up and hugging him in congratulations. But as soon as he looked up and noticed the darkness around him, he knew he was wrong.

He got up and looked around, barely aware of his reply to Cedric to reassure him he was fine.

"Where are we?" Cedric asked, getting up and wandering the place.

Harry walked up to a large tombstone, that had the name 'RIDDLE' plastered on it, next to it there was a huge Grim Reaper, which almost looked like a dementor, standing next to it. Harry suddenly felt cold.

"I've been here before." He said aloud. He wasn't paying attention as Cedric walked up to the Cup, which he was now stating was a Portkey. He was trying to figure out exactly why this place was real.

"I've been here before," Harry gasped, "In a dream." The green eyed boy walked up to the tombstone and looked at the name before him: 'TOM RIDDLE'.

"Cedric." He said instantly, "We need to get back to the cup. Now!"

Cedric noticed the urgency in the young Gryffindor's voice and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Harry looked around and saw in the distance a small opening, in what appeared to be some kind of tunnel. From the entrance a man started walking towards him, and Harry vaguely recognized him before he was hit with a head splitting pain in his scar. He let out a shout and Cedric came toward him.

"Harry, what it is?"

He was barely able to get the words out of his mouth as his scar felt like there was a hot poker being placed there.

"Cedric! Get back to the cup!"

He looked up and his earlier identification of the man was confirmed as he took another look at the small, rat- like man: Peter Pettigrew or Wormtail as he was referred too. However, before he could say or do anything, another wave of pain hit him hard and he was only able to catch a glimpse of something small and grotesque in the traitor's arms. He held both hands up to his head before kneeling down and groaning loudly in pain.

Harry felt Cedric, who was kneeling next to him, get up and leave, and the next thing he knew, Cedric was shouting, "Who are you? What do you want?"

A cold, cruel voice spoke from Wormtail's direction, and Harry grew hollow because he recognized the voice from his nightmares. And it wasn't Pettigrew's.

"Kill the spare."

Wormtail obeyed, yelling, "Avada Kedavra!"

Harry looked up in time to see a flash of green light rush towards Cedric, "No! Cedric!" But he noticed his pleas were fruitless as the handsome Hufflepuff flew through the sky and hit the ground hard.

Dead.

Harry had no time to mourn his fellow champion because the next thing he knew a wand was being pointed at him and he was being forced against the gravestone, the Reaper charmed to move and trap him. He was wedged tightly against the marble tombstone and the handle of the Reaper's weapon, with no chance of him escaping.

Harry watched wide eyed as Wormtail tossed the naked thing in his arms into a huge cauldron before him and began putting in random ingredients, including a bone, Wormtail's hand, and some of Harry's blood.

Harry's scar started searing in pain, worse than it ever had before. He started yelling, feeling as if his scar itself were set on fire. He tried to focus on what was happening before him, but was too focused on the agony he was feeling. Somehow he managed to view what was happening in front of him as the cauldron had disappeared and the baby-like thing Wormtail had thrown in was transforming into something else. As a black mist started to form around the being, draping itself around it like a cloak, Harry was still shouting, but stopped long enough to witness what had just happened.

He was back.

Lord Voldemort was back.

* * *

By the time the shock had worn off of him, the sky was spewing out smoke it seemed, and before him were ten Death Eaters, which Harry figured were the same ones from the World Cup.

Harry looked to Voldemort as he began addressing his followers.

"Welcome, my friends. Thirteen years it's been, and yet here you stand before me as if it were only yesterday." Voldemort continued in his callous voice, "I confess myself disappointed. Not one of you tried to find me."

He stomped around whipping the masks off of the Death Eaters, before stopping at one Lucius Malfoy.

"Not even you, Lucius."

"My lord, had I detected any sign, or whisper of your whereabouts." Lucius tried to plead, but the Dark Lord cut him off.

"There were signs, my slippery friend. And more than whispers."

Lucius tried again, "I assure you my Lord, I have never renounced the old ways. The face I have been obliged to each day in your absence, that is my true mask."

Wormtail spoke up, shaking. "I returned."

Voldemort quickly rushed over to him, snarling, "Out of fear. Not loyalty. Still you have proven yourself useful these past few months, Wormtail." He pointed his wand to the cowering man's missing hand and in the place of the bloody stump grew a silver hand. Good as new.

Voldemort walked over to Cedric, ignoring the 'thank you's' from his follower. He tutted before saying, "Such a handsome boy," allowing his foot to turn the dead boy's head.

"Don't touch him!" Harry shouted, and Voldemort turned around, a mock surprise expression on his pale face.

"Harry. Oh, I'd almost forgotten you were here." He walked over to the trapped teen, "Standing on the bones of my dead father. I'd introduce you, but word is you're almost as famous as me these days." He turned towards his followers.

"The boy who lived." He then began to re-tell the legendary story of how Harry lived, and how he was 'defeated'.

"It was old magic. Something I should have foreseen. But no matter, no matter, things change." Voldemort than called out to someone behind him, however Harry wasn't paying attention as he became aware of about ten more men and women who came to join Voldemort's circle. The one important fact was that they didn't apparate in. No. Some appeared in the blink of an eye, or in a distortion of the scenery before him. Harry stood rooted to the spot as he realized these must be the demons the Halliwells were most known for fighting against.

"Ah, Harry. Have you met my new allies?" Harry turned his attention back to the evil wizard in front of him, but a person moving behind Voldemort caught his attention and he became more focused on the woman behind him. Realizing he recognized her from somewhere, he was brought back to the night of the World Cup, and how there had been a woman who was throwing bright, orange fireballs to the tents of unknown wizards.

This was her. The one who had looked at him before disappearing in a flicker of flames.

"Harry don't be rude, introduce yourself." Harry must have been taking too long because Voldemort cut in, "Never mind allow me."

The woman stepped closer to Harry and he flinched even harder against the cold stone behind him. She let out a smirk and Harry looked at her closely. She had dark wavy hair that sat just above her shoulders, contrasting with her pale skin. She was wearing dark clothes that slimmed her already lean figure. She was very pretty, and had she been wearing normal clothes she could almost be mistaken as a kind muggle, but as Harry took one look into her eyes, he knew no one would be able to believe that. The malevolent look in her eyes almost matched that of Voldemort's.

Almost.

Her icy blue eyes were tainted with tease and violence, almost as if she liked to play with her victims before killing them. A smirk was present on her face and Voldemort's voice brought him out of his observation.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet the demon that brought forth this welcoming. Meet Mariea." She looked over to Harry and then walked forward, slowly.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Potter." She said, her voice attempting to lure him into a false sense of security.

"As I've said Harry, not only has Mariea allowed me to have additional numbers in my ranks, but has seen to it that I can touch you now." Voldemort rushed forward and pressed one hand forward to Harry's scar, making the trapped boy scream in pain.

Voldemort then pulled back long enough for Mariea to get in Harry's line of vision. She gripped his face tightly, making Harry wince, and she stared straight into his eyes.

"It's amazing how a simple spell and potion can change so much, isn't it Harry?" She spoke in a low voice, "Wizards think they're so superior, but they are too scared to even try the darkest and foulest magic that exist in our world."

She threw his head back harshly, and it hit the stone, making Harry groan aloud, but she ignored him, instead turning to face her followers, and held her arms out wide, gesturing to them.

"These are the people you should fear. Not the mere memory of a Dark Lord." She turned around and Harry saw she had a wicked grin on her face. Harry was surprised that Voldemort had yet to say anything to Mariea as she had just plainly stated that demons should be feared, not Voldemort and the Death Eaters, but Voldemort was silently nodding along.

"Hmm, you don't seem to agree, Harry." She held a finger to her chin, in a mock thinking position. She slowly walked forward to Voldemort.

"Perhaps the boy should be reminded again how my magic helped with your resurrection, my Lord?" Harry started yelling again as Voldemort placed his finger to the lightning bolt scar.

Amongst the searing pain, Harry started thinking, quickly being reminded of a particular brunette and her advice, although now that Harry thought about it, he figured it was some kind of warning. _If you're in any danger, call my name and I'll be there._

As Harry was still being subjected to the sick entertainment of those around him, he let out one word amongst his shouts that confused everyone in the graveyard.

"MELINDA!"

* * *

Wyatt had moved down to stand next to Melinda near the maze entrance and watched as she paced back and forth. He had seen her change in emotions when she had immediately stood up and stared at the grass wall. He knew she was feeling uneasy, and if he were being honest, something also felt a little off to him.

"Where could they be?" Melinda shouted to her brother.

He wasn't sure if she meant the champions or their still missing family members.

"I don't know." He answered in reference to both.

She walked forward to touch the grass wall, palms flat down against it. _'Most likely thinking of setting it on fire', _Wyatt thought, bemused. However, he became somber when he saw his sister's shoulders tense.

"What's wrong?" He asked her.

She was still frozen for a moment before she turned and looked at Wyatt in confusion. "Did you hear that?"

Wyatt looked lost, "Hear what?"

Melinda suddenly looked back to the Maze and then cocked her head, before her eyes widened slightly and she looked worried, "Harry's calling me."

Wyatt wasn't able to respond, because right after her statement, Melinda disappeared in the midst of a breeze, leaving a few leaves swirling around him.

Wyatt immediately ran off to search for Chris. Something was about to happen and it definitely wasn't going to be good.

* * *

Melinda didn't know where she was going, but after she heard Harry's voice screaming in her head, she allowed herself to be whisked away to find him. Once she felt her body finally start to settle down and the breeze around her calm, she was shocked to see Harry in front of her, bleeding and looking exhausted.

She looked behind him and paled a bit as she acknowledged the tombstone he was standing on as the exact one from her dream. For the moment, she decided to ignore it as she rushed forward and stood up on the platform in front of him.

"Harry! What the hell happened? What are you doing here?" She asked him, trying to find a way to release him.

"Melinda, look—" Harry tried to warn her, but a voice behind Melinda made her freeze.

"And who exactly asked for _you_ to join us?" A sultry voice asked behind her.

Melinda slowly turned and found herself facing about twenty people, half of which she were sure were demons, surrounding the stone in a circle. In the middle were two people, one Melinda realized, was the demon that had been plaguing her dreams. The other was a pale, snake like person, who Melinda would've thought was a demon. But as she glanced at the wand in his hand, she understood what had happened.

They had actually succeeded in bringing Voldemort back.

Her stomach dropped as she realized they now held the Boy-Who-Lived and the most powerful witch in their grasp.

"Oh, no." She whispered softly.

* * *

**Isn't it way better? I think so! And for those that missed it last time Mariea is pronounced Mah-ree-A.**

**I have the next chapter nice and ready for yall! It's another of my faves. The minute I reach 62 reviews, I will update!  
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**I'm already finishing up chapter 16 and I think this story may wrap up at chapter 17! Yes there will be a sequel, so OOTP will be next!  
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******Just so yall know, I will be on a small vacation with my friends starting next Tues (the 17th) and it'll be about a week that I'm gone. This story is practically finished already, so if you would all like to have GoF completed before I leave and then Ootp started the moment I get back, review!**  


******Let me know what you'd like to see in Ootp before I cement the story! Or if you have not yet reviewed and have followed along with the story, leave one little comment before this story is done :)  
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	15. Exit Strategy

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

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**A/N: Didn't I say that I would never make yall wait until a certain number of reviews popped up? :D Anyways, I hope yall enjoy this chapter! It's one of my favorites! Again, thanks to JayFireweaver who beta'd this chapter!  
**

* * *

Exit Strategy

Melinda looked around, trying to find any kind of escape. She gazed quickly over the area, taking in the amount of men and few women around her. Her eyes lingered on a body to the far left of her. As her eyes tried to peer through the dark atmosphere, she began to focus in on the person. At first, she couldn't tell who it was but she could make out that it was a male with a yellow shirt.

She felt her face pale as she realized who it was.

Cedric Diggory.

Her heart then began to race as she understood she was truly trapped. Even if she were able to leave, she'd have to find a way to take Harry with her, and now that she saw Cedric was here as well, she was stuck. She couldn't leave the poor boy's body with these monsters. But she needed to get herself and Harry out before they ended with the same fate.

She looked back to Cedric and with an apologetic look to the fallen boy, stepped back slightly ready to grab Harry. She felt what she figured was his pants leg, but before she could make another move, she felt herself flying through the air.

"MELINDA!" Harry shouted, watching her hit the ground and stay still. He turned back to the demon before him and yelled, "LEAVE HER ALONE!"

His demand was ignored as Voldemort swiftly moved in front of Mariea. "How did she get here?" He demanded. "You said no one would be able to find this location!" He pointed his wand threateningly at her as he gripped her arm.

Mariea was unaffected and instead kept her eyes locked on the female lying on the ground, following her movements as she began to stir. She had anticipated the Halliwell's arrival and had not been disappointed.

"I said that we were shielded from spells that the witches would use to find us." She took herself out of the Dark Lord's grasp and walked towards Melinda, who was currently trying to crawl towards Harry. "It would also block those annoying whitelighters from finding us."

"However…" She pushed her foot to hit Melinda's side, causing the younger girl to gasp loudly and roll onto her back. Mariea then crouched down, leaning over her. "This special girl's powers are connected with the very earth itself. As long as we were surrounded by some kind of element, nature would allow her presence."

Mariea observed Melinda carefully, almost childlike. The witch glared back at her as Mariea whispered tauntingly, "Besides, you're the most powerful witch this world has ever seen. Surely you'd make it past some silly wards, wouldn't you?"

Getting frustrated, Melinda shoved the witch back, her powers causing enough wind force to throw the demon cleanly through the air. She stood up quickly, ignoring the slight throbbing throughout her body and tried to run back towards Harry, who was wearily watching Voldemort, before she felt something hit her body and she started screaming.

Through her own screams, she was able to hear Harry yelling her name. But that was just a sound in the back of her mind as she felt like a thousand searing swords were stabbing her body over and over again. It seemed like the torture had gone on forever before it ended. She was breathing heavily and trying to focus her vision, gripping the soft grass beneath her as she tried to get ahold of her surroundings.

"NO!" She heard the demon shout furiously, "She's mine! You have your own wizard to take care of."

Melinda felt hands roughly pick her up and drag her to a new location. She looked up when she saw bright lights surrounding her. As she managed to think more clearly, she realized she was trapped in a crystal cage. She eyed the purple crystals surrounding her and followed the line of pulsing violet light as they connected at the top. She knew it was pointless to try and escape because the crystals were a bit like Wyatt's force field.

Except they were meant to keep her in. She didn't know how or when they'd worked it out, or how they'd even got hold of the crystals, but the demons were using the very same kind of cage her mother and aunts used to trap demons, including the Source of All Evil, all those years ago. There was no way out of the cage unless one of the crystals was moved, but that was impossible from the inside.

"I told you I was expecting you." The demon sneered.

Melinda stood up, not full erect, but enough to alert those around her to her strong presence. She gathered as close to the force field as she could, and found the demon outside of it doing the same.

"Who are you?" Melinda asked in a low voice.

Instead of appearing threatened or even slightly impressed at her strength after enduring the Cruciatus curse, the demon just stared at her, with her arms crossed, as if trying to find the proof of a supposed Great Power. After a moment, she finally answered.

"I'm Mariea. And you, Melinda Halliwell, are not what I expected." She began to circle the crystal cage, eyeing the girl inside.

"I expected someone more… Well, I can't say to tell you the truth." She let out a short laugh and halted again in front of the girl.

Melinda's eyes narrowed at her, "I've never heard of you before."

"You wouldn't have would you? Unlike the idiots in the Underworld who think it better to proclaim their power and be found out by witches' like _you_, I was smart enough to stay hidden. Seek out the forces I needed in order to take out you and your family."

A cruel smirk crossed her pretty face as she stared at Melinda. "It's horrible how such strong and beautiful magic is to be wasted on something like you." Her voice had dropped down, making the woman's voice sound raspy and dangerous, "So much power... Do you have any idea the damage you can cause? The world could be at your beck and call. But no." She turned around and pointed to Harry who was still against the tombstone.

"Instead you waste it on protecting people like him!" Mariea grasped the sides of her head, as if believing it to be completely impossible to do such a thing. "You waste such magnificent power on those who are scheduled to die!"

"You won't hurt him!" Melinda voiced loudly, "I won't let you."

Mariea dropped her hands from her head and looked at the witch, "I never said _I_ was going to be the one to hurt him, sweetheart."

She turned around to face the cloaked man behind her and Melinda locked eyes with him. As she stared into his red eyes, she quickly turned towards her friend and realized that he looked frightened, although for her wellbeing or because of the man in front of him, she wasn't sure.

"Enough of this talk!" Voldemort walked over to Harry and released him, throwing him his wand as he shuffled backwards.

He looked back to see Harry still on the ground and started shouting, almost as if he was anticipating a great moment. "Pick up your wand, Potter! Come on, get up! Get up!"

Harry looked to Melinda and as she nodded her head, he crawled towards his wand and was starting to stand when Voldemort turned around and faced him.

"You've been taught how to duel, I presume? First we bow to each other." Harry looked confused but alert as Voldemort did the spoken action.

Watching Harry's hesitance, the Dark Lord egged him on, "Come on, now. The niceties must be observed. Dumbledore wouldn't want you to forget your manners now would he?"

Harry still didn't listen, so Voldemort made Harry bow to him, by raising his wand and causing Harry to bow through an unspoken spell. As Harry groaned in pain, Melinda began to try and think of ways to get out of the cage and get them out of there. She knew calling for her brothers would be pointless, because Mariea had said herself that no one would be able to find them. As she heard Harry start screaming in pain, she turned back to the duel going on and started shouting, begging them to stop. But if anything, her cries made the situation even more comical to the demons and death eaters.

"Atta boy, Harry. Your parents would be proud." Melinda watched as Harry got angry at the mocking tone coming from the wizard's mouth. "Especially your filthy muggle mother."

"Expelliam—"

Harry was cut off as Voldemort shielded the spell and it sprang back to him. "I'm going to kill you, Harry Potter. I'm going to destroy you." He leaned down next to Harry, "After tonight, no one will ever question my powers again."

A loud yelp was heard from where Melinda was and the members in the graveyard turned back to see Melinda putting out a small fire on her sleeve. In Voldemort's proclamation, she had sent a fireball towards the cage, but it rebounded and hit her, leaving a blistering wound on her arm.

"Stupid girl!" Voldemort shouted. "No one, not even you, can halt the inevitable."

While Voldemort was distracted by Melinda, Harry had gotten up and ran to hide behind another tombstone. The Dark Lord became furious and shot the Killing Curse at the stone.

"Don't turn your back on me, Harry Potter! I want you to look at me while I kill you!" He blast another spell out of fury, "I want to see the light leave your eyes."

Melinda hoped that Harry had enough sense to stay hidden behind the stone, but she felt like groaning when she saw the messy haired boy reappear. She saw a determined look on his face as he stated, "Have it your way."

"HARRY!" She screamed as Voldemort shot the _Avada Kedavra _curse the same time Harry released his _Expelliarmus _charm. She expected to see Harry drop dead, as did many of the others, but was left standing shocked and confused as the two beams of light, red and green, connected with each other, creating a string of light between the two wands. The Death Eaters were standing dumbfounded before one strode forward, not knowing what to do exactly, but knowing he needed to do something.

"Do nothing!" Voldemort shouted, "He's mine to finish." Melinda watched as a gold shield began to form around the two. As Mariea started to throw huge, orange fireballs to the shield, everyone was confused as it shot back, taking out two demons. Everyone, including Voldemort, had clearly not expected what was happening.

Melinda looked back down, trying to figure out a way of escape, knowing that whatever was going on with Harry and Voldemort wouldn't last for too long. She looked around desperately, trying to find anything that would help her out. She looked at the grass beneath her and stared at it for a while, before kneeling down in it. She knew what she was attempting was crazy, but it was a chance she had to take.

She placed her palms flat against the grass, directly in front of one of the crystals. She tried to do what she had done with the water, to find a connection of some kind with the ground. After a few seconds of nothing she pulled back and groaned in frustration. She looked back to see how Harry was doing and met Harry's eyes staring at her, afraid, but completely covered with purpose to get out of there. She stared back to the ground and placed her hands back the way they had been. Recalling what her father had taught her and her siblings about tapping into a power, she forced herself to relax and focus on the power within, knowing that somewhere deep inside her, it was waiting to be tapped and controlled. Suddenly, Melinda started to feel something heat up inside her, and she realized that manipulating the ground was a lot harder than controlling fire, wind or even water.

She felt a fire burning within her, and it seemed as if it took every ounce of her being to keep it tamed. She knew that if she let the fire run wild, bad things would happen. She tried to focus the energy in front of her, at the space between her hands. She started feeling dizzy and felt a slight shocking thrum through her, as a result of her attempting to break through the crystal cage. The cage was weakest at the bottom, but it still stung nonetheless.

She thought she heard voices around her, but ignored them as she continued to pour all her energy into the ground beneath her. As she felt herself start to shake, she thought it was because of the exertion she was placing into her powers, but as she heard shouting, she began to realize that maybe her plan was working.

"No! What is she doing?" Melinda heard a fireball shoot her way but it was blocked as it hit the cage, causing another hit of electricity to find her. As she heard the ground roaring open beneath her, she opened her eyes and looked in front of her, noticing that the crystal in front of her was balancing between the large lone crack in the ground she was creating. She felt the energy of the power roar inside her, and felt a painful throbbing enter her head as she watched the crystal fall into the hole, cancelling the force field.

The young witch immediately let the power inside her cool, and watched as the ground sewed itself up. She stood up as fast as she could, and shot a blue fireball at the newest cloaked figure. She heard the screams of the demon as it went up in flames and the frustration growl of Mariea as she demanded the others try and grab her. Melinda threw her arm out in front of her and felt a huge gust of wind fly forward, successfully knocking many of the demons and death eaters to the ground.

She stumbled over to where Cedric's body was as best as she could. She was still feeling weak as her earthly power had exhausted most of her energy. She began to panic as the graveyard became extremely clouded, and she yelled as she felt a hand roughly grab her arm and drag her to the ground. She landed next to what she thought was a body and heard a voice she knew as Harry's shout. A second later she felt as if something had grabbed her by the gut and started spinning her around at a rapid pace. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, she roughly hit the floor.

She heard the sound of cheering and music and felt Harry start grasping her shirt as he started pleading, "Melinda? Melinda! Please, please be okay!" She felt him bury her head into the crook of her neck as he openly sobbed.

Completely confused she lifted her hand and dropped it, finding her fingers buried in his thick hair. "Harry…?" She asked groggily.

She didn't know when but the cheering and music had died down as she heard a female scream, leaving only a few whispers and shouts.

"Harry-?"

"MELINDA!"

The Halliwell felt herself being pulled by her arm towards whoever kept shouting her name. However she was being held back by Harry, who was refusing to let her go. All his weight wasn't on her and it seemed as if he was half with her and half on the ground. She kept hearing his protests, as more voices wafted through her ears.

"For god's sake Dumbledore, what happened?"

Melinda heard Harry's voice above her start to desperately shout, "HE'S BACK! HE'S BACK! VOLDEMORT'S BACK!"

Melinda began to sit up, Harry instinctively following her movements so now they were tangled close together. Although still weak, she was beginning to get a hold of her surroundings. She was able to see that around her were Dumbledore, her brothers, and some other adults and students she didn't care for at the moment.

She felt Harry trembling next to her as he continued, "Cedric—He asked me to bring his body back! I couldn't leave him! Not there!" Melinda felt her eyes burning as she looked next to Harry and saw that he was clenching his schoolmate's dead body. She felt tears began to fall down her face and she began to grasp onto Harry's arm which was helping him to lean over her sitting form. She didn't know why she was crying, but she felt herself start shaking and wasn't able to concentrate on anything.

She started to stumble out words as she felt her brothers close in around her, "I tried—I tried, but I didn't know—We, we didn't know—" She started to shake hard as she felt her brothers embrace her, whispering consoling words.

She wasn't aware of the many people starting to crowd around her. She did hear, unfortunately, the unmistakable cry of a man grieving the loss of his son. But that was it. She felt Chris behind her, and Wyatt on her right, holding her tightly as she still kept her grip on Harry's arm.

Amidst the soothing words, the shouts, and the cries, one would think that she wouldn't feel the sensation of her friend's arm being ripped from her clutch. However, the minute Harry's arm was gone, she noticed it and amongst the confusion had a hard time asking her brother's why Harry had left. She then gained a very serious look on her face which made her brothers focus on her.

"They had someone on the inside, Wyatt. Someone that was able to get Harry to that graveyard." She gasped out. As realization dawned on the two, Chris immediately stood up and looked around.

Wyatt helped his younger sister up and they both looked to the brunette male to confirm what they already knew.

"Harry and Moody are missing."

* * *

Harry could still feel himself shaking as he was led into Mad-Eye's office. He wasn't thinking as his Professor sat him down on a stool. As he clutched his wounded arm, he could still see what had happened flashing in his mind.

Landing in the graveyard.

Cedric dropping dead.

Voldemort coming back.

Melinda being tortured and caged.

He stood up as the images kept running through his mind and he had found himself heading for the door before Made-Eye grabbed his shoulder and tried to steer him back to the chair.

"No!" He protested weakly, "I need to make sure she's okay, I called her there… She's—She's hurt because of me—"

The older wizard ignored him and sat him down, "Sit, Potter. Halliwell is with her brothers, so I'm sure she's fine for the time being. Are you all right?"

Harry gave a quick nod. "Does it hurt? That?" Mad-Eye nodded to the cut on Harry's forearm.

Again the boy merely answered by shaking his head, adding, "Not so much now."

"Perhaps I should take a look at it." As Mad-Eye inspected Harry's wound, Harry began to explain how the cup was a Portkey and that someone had bewitched it. Harry didn't notice that the man in front of him wasn't paying attention.

"What was he like?" He asked, almost earnestly.

Harry was lost, "Who?"

"The Dark Lord?" Mad-Eye replied. Harry felt a hard pressure on his arm and looked up as Mad-Eye moved away, asking him, "What was it like to be in his presence?"

"I don't know." The Gryffindor replied shortly. The images pressed harder against his mind, "It was like I'd fallen into one of my dreams… into one of my nightmares." Harry continued seeing Cedric hit the cold, hard ground and hearing Melinda's screams.

He was brought out of the horrific memory as he witnessed Mad-Eye start frantically walking about the room, searching for something. He heard glass bottles clanging as he was asked, "Were there others?"

"Others?"

"In the Graveyard, were there others?" Harry heard more clanging as the faces of Death Eaters were tossed in his mind. Mad-Eye continued before Harry could answer.

"And Mariea? How is she? Was she the one to rough up Halliwell?"

Harry's blood froze inside him. He replied slowly, "I don't think I ever mentioned a graveyard… or Mariea, Professor…"

He turned slowly to see his Professor eyeing him. "Marvelous creatures, dragons, aren't they?" He asked quietly.

He began stomping around the room, speaking in his harsh tone, "Do you think that miserable oaf would've led you into the woods, had I not suggested it?" He kept rushing around, looking in cabinets, but always turning around to speak to Harry, "Do you think Cedric Diggory would've told you to open that egg underwater, had I not told him myself?"

Harry stared at the man before him as the pieces fell together. "It was _you _from the beginning_. _You put my name into the Goblet of Fire. You bewitched Krum—but, but you-"

"But—but," Mad-Eye mocked him before stating, "You won because I made it so, Potter. You ended up in that Graveyard because it was meant to be so."

Harry thought back to the witch who he had thanked for helping him throughout most of the tasks, "But Melinda, she—"

Mad-Eye slammed a glass bottle to the floor, "That little witch and her brothers kept a close eye on me all year!" He shouted, "At first I didn't notice, but the night at the Yule Ball, I realized what that little brat was doing!"

He paced about the room, "The one thing we had not expected was the Halliwells coming, however the moment I saw them, I knew they must've gotten a whiff of what was happening. A completely different trail led the Charmed Ones somewhere else tonight, and I wonder if they will even make it out of there alive."

Harry's heart sank, "What did you do to them?"

"I distracted them! I thought it would get those runts off my trail, but no!" Mad-Eye stomped in front of Harry, "_She _had to remain by your side! I thought I'd never get rid of her…" He walked away and continued, "But I used it to my advantage. I told the Dark Lord about your relations with her and Mariea seemed quite pleased with that." He turned back to Harry and a nasty smirk crossed his scarred face.

"I take it Halliwell had what was coming to her, too bad she didn't just _die_."

What happened next was a blur. Just as Harry had angrily stood up, a blast hit the door and Mad-Eye was flung backwards into a chair. Harry looked in the doorway and saw that Melinda's mother had been the one to cause the explosion and she wasn't alone. Right next to her, wearing matching scratches and bleeding marks, were her sisters and husband. As they marched in, Harry was able to see that _all _the Halliwells were present, along with Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape.

"Say that about my daughter again, and it will be the last thing you ever do." Piper threatened, as Dumbledore and Snape rushed forward, throwing the contents of a vial down the traitor's throat.

As he swallowed the contents of the potion, Dumbledore began firing questions at him, holding his wand at his neck.

"Do you know who I am?"

Mad-Eye struggled for a bit before replying, "Albus Dumbledore."

"Are you Alastor Moody?" Dumbledore spoke in a firm tone.

"…No."

"Where is he? Is he in this room?" The Headmaster was shaking the imposter by his collar. After a moment, 'Mad-Eye' eyed a trunk that Harry was standing by.

"Harry, quick, away from there!" Harry did as he was told and ran to stand next Melinda, who was being shielded by her brothers, and was wrapped up in her father's arm. But as he moved next to her, she escaped her father's stance and stood against Harry, and he wrapped his arm around her.

Piper thrust her hands open towards the huge trunk and the lock burst open, causing what was inside to open several different levels inside the case, as if there were several different cases inside.

The British Professors peered into the box and discovered an alive, but obviously weak Alastor Moody. As Severus Snape held the potion under his nose he identified it as Polyjuice Potion, a potion that would allow the drinker to transform into any person he wanted, so long as he had the hair of said person.

"We'll get you out." Albus reassured his friend.

They turned around as they heard odd noises spewing from the imposter, still trapped on the chair. As the man began to transform to his true self, Melinda let out a gasp.

"That's him! He's the one I kept seeing!" She voiced.

Harry had stepped forward to get a closer look at the man, "…Barty Crouch Junior?" He was pulled back quickly as the dead man's son reached forward to grab him.

Barty Crouch Junior had a smug grin on his face and stretched his arm out, telling Harry, "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours." He showed off the Dark Mark on his arm and Dumbledore pulled out the arm that Harry had had blood stolen from in order to resurrect the Dark Lord.

Crouch was satisfied and announced to the room, "You know what this means, right? He's back. Lord Voldemort has returned."

Leo started pulling the youngest out of the room as Dumbledore was left to talk with the Death Eater. He started marching them down to the Hospital Wing, his daughter holding his right hand, while on her right Harry Potter had his arm draped protectively over her shoulders. He heard footsteps behind him and knew that his sons had followed along, needing to know that their sister and her friend were okay.

As they entered the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey made a fuss over the two, Leo reassured them that his son would heal the two of them, but right now they needed rest and quiet. She nodded firmly and found two beds for them in the back. As Harry and Melinda lay down, they faced each other, Leo noted, and he concluded that the two wanted to keep an eye on each other, and after what they had just endured, he wouldn't have expected any less.

"Dad?" He heard his daughter softly whisper as her friend's eyes closed.

He sat next to Melinda on the bed and gently ran his hand through her hair, "Where were you, tonight?"

Leo thought back to what had happened and decided that the family would explain once the two were well rested. "Later, sweetheart. Right now, sleep. You and Harry are safe now. You're both protected."

* * *

**:D :D Hope you liked it! Thanks to those that have added the story on alert or favorites! And to those that review, I love hearing from you :) The next chapter will be up soon!**

**Remember, we're almost at the end of this story, so let me know if you have some requests for Ootp before I start writing! I will try my best to get them in there! Review for a preview of next chapter!  
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	16. Enlightenments

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

Enlightenments

The first thing she could register was her mother's voice, fiercely arguing with someone in the distance. She opened her eyes but quickly shut them as the sunlit room stung her vision. She slowly sat up and groaned, feeling as if she had been sleeping for a long time. She opened her eyes again and after blinking awhile, noticed a dog sitting on the floor, simply staring at her. She cocked her head, wondering why a dog was in her room, but as she looked down to the white sheets on her bed, she realized this wasn't her room. As she looked again at the dog, she took in his scruffy, black hair and memories ran to her mind.

"Harry!" She shouted loudly. She turned to her left as she heard someone move about and she was pulled into somebody's warm grasp as she heard her name softly spoken by a voice she recognized as Harry's.

She clutched him tight for a moment before pulling him back to look at him. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" She quickly scanned him, taking in his dirty clothes, but other than that, he looked unharmed, spotting only dark bags under his eyes. He seemed to be doing the same to her, but before either could do or say anything else, a bark came from the dog in front of them and they both jumped.

The dog stood on all fours and seemed to look at Harry before barking again towards the closed doors of the Hospital Wing.

"Harry, I didn't know you had a dog." Melinda said, not really knowing what else to say.

"I don't." Harry looked at the dog, and it came over to put his front paws on the bed. Harry affectionately rubbed the dog's head and said, "He's more like a guardian." It barked happily and Harry smiled. More muffled shouts could be heard behind the huge oak doors. What she could make out was that it was her mom, Dumbledore and some other man still arguing. The two teens stared at the door, trying to decipher what was happening, but they both realized it was pointless.

Harry had gone quiet and Melinda turned to see him staring at nothing, rubbing the dog's head absentmindedly. She noticed they were still wearing the same clothes, and she wondered how long the both of them had been sleeping. He slowly looked up to her when he felt her gaze. She gave a weak smile and looked behind her to see a bowl of water on the nightstand beside her.

Harry looked at her oddly as she twisted and brought it to rest between them. She looked around for a cloth and was bemused as Harry's dog dropped one onto the bed. When Melinda wasn't looking, Harry gave the dog a warning glare. When he looked up he was met with a pair of brown eyes and a cool sensation against his head.

As Melinda gingerly wiped the dirt from Harry's face she asked, "So how are you able to have a dog? Wouldn't your relatives be mad?"

Harry was quiet for a moment before responding, "They don't really know. Besides Padfoot just wanders around." Melinda nodded her head in understanding. She had successfully wiped his face clean and was working on gently running water through his dirt matted hair. A few moments passed in silence as both were caught up in their own thoughts.

"Harry." The boy looked up to her as her hand stopped running through his now damp hair, "There's something I need to tell you."

The doors to the Wing opened up and before Harry could hear what she was going to say, a group of people came rushing in and surrounded her. He carefully got off the bed, taking the water basin with him so he could give the family some privacy. However as he set the basin on the nightstand, he felt a warm hand grasp his and looked down to see that it was Melinda's, who was hugging her mother, but firmly holding his hand, telling him to stay.

Wyatt then went over to him, clapping him on the back and telling him, "You've healed up nicely." He shared a wide smile as if there was some kind of secret.

Harry was puzzled by the grin on Wyatt's face but answered anyways, "Yeah, well Madam Pomfrey is a great healer."

"No, Harry, I healed you. Both of you, while you two were sleeping. Didn't Melinda tell you that I could heal?" He turned towards his sister who was now being released by her Aunt.

"Melinda, you never told Harry what my powers were?" He scoffed, "Some best friend you are." Wyatt laughed and sent a wink to his sister to let her know he was just playing.

"I think now that everyone is settled, we should get down to business." Dumbledore eyed the two teens before him.

The atmosphere instantly became serious.

It lasted for a moment before the sound of running footsteps came bursting through the door and everyone turned around to be met with the panting forms of Ron and Hermione. Ron was kneeled over trying to catch his breath, but Hermione had become red faced as she realized that her Professor and the most known Wiccan family were staring at them.

She patted Ron's shoulder so that he would look up and she slowly stated, "Um, I'm sorry. We just—We'll just be going—"

But as she saw her friends' forms stand up behind the clutter of people she forgot what had happened and ran towards them with a shout of their names. Hermione practically jumped on the bed grabbing Melinda's sitting form and forcing Harry to hunch down due to his standing position.

"I'm so happy you two are alright!" She cried out.

"Hermione... You're killing them…" Ron stated, trying to pry her off the startled two. After a moment she quickly released and demanded, "What happened?"

"That's what we were trying to figure out." Paige said. Hermione blushed before Phoebe sent her a warm smile.

"It's ok. You can stay. I'm sure these two will not want to repeat it later, right?" Paige added.

They nodded and looked at one another. "You go first, Harry."

And he did. He relayed what happened that night, beginning from how Cedric and he decided to have a double win for Hogwarts and ended when Mad-Eye had took him up to his office and he figured out that the imposter was the one who had started his dangerous year.

When Harry had mentioned Mariea, he didn't miss the look the siblings shared. And when Voldemort coming back had been mentioned he didn't miss the way Dumbledore looked down at the ground regretfully, or how the Charmed Ones shared the same knowingly guilty look he had just witnessed the other set of siblings share.

Getting sick of being oblivious to the looks around him, Harry finally shouted, "What is with the looks!" He turned to Melinda, "Did you know something?"

Melinda looked to her brothers, who nodded and then she looked solemnly back to Harry. She sighed deeply before talking.

"The day my dad had mentioned we'd be attending Hogwarts I had this strange dream. In it I was walking up some steps, and was listening in to a meeting going on between four people. One woman and three men. One American, the other British." She paused, making sure Harry was following along. She was focused solely on him, not only because it was about time she told him what she had been hiding from him since day one, but because she was afraid of the looks her family would give when they realized she had kept something this big from them.

"I wasn't able to gather much, but as the dreams continued for the nights leading up to our arrival here, I was able to gather that they were going to be going after someone, and that this particular person… wouldn't see them coming…"

"I didn't take it too seriously, because I don't have visions. I never have. It's not a part of my powers. But the day when we had snuck into Moody's class?" She waited for Harry to recall that day and then continued, "When he performed the Killing Curse, I knew what I was seeing was real."

"You had asked me what had made me scared in the room that day. Why I had lost control and the water exploded? It was because the one part of my dream that I recalled clearly was the stream of green light that I knew killed an elderly man in the house. When that light shot out and killed that spider? I knew what I had seen wasn't just a figment of my imagination."

She ran a hand through her dirty hair. "When Moody had mentioned that you were the only one to have survived the curse, I knew I had to talk to you. I wasn't sure why, but I thought that you would give me some kind of answers, anything to help me figure out what the hell was going on!"

She looked up from the sheets on her bed and found Harry's eyes staring angrily at her. "So you befriended me just so you could get information from me." He stated it as if that was a fact, but it wasn't.

"What? No! Well—it seems like that, but it wasn't like that at all!" She sighed, calming herself. "Harry, you have to understand where I'm coming from. I face evils like this every day. If someone may be in trouble, I need to do what needs to be done to stop it. We became close friends! How was I supposed to tell you that I started to suspect something bad was coming after you? Especially after your name was shot from the Goblet?"

"And then the night of the Yule Ball, I had the same dream, except the people in my… _vision_," she spat the word, "had said your name. After that I knew I had to do whatever it took to protect you and find out _exactly _what these people wanted with you! Wyatt, Chris and I had managed to sneak out of the castle and enter the Underworld to spy, but—"

"You WHAT?" Piper, who along with everyone else present in the room was listening to what had happened with the youngest Halliwell the past few months, exploded at this new piece of information.

Melinda winced, realizing that was something that wasn't supposed to be mentioned. "Mom, I had to! Everyone knows that if we need real information, to head to the place that would most likely have people boasting about stuff like that."

"Yes, but you should have come to us, not go running around the Underworld with demons!" Piper exclaimed.

"I know, but Wyatt and Chris were—" Melinda was cut off as her mother stood up and walked over to her sons.

"And you two let her GO? What is wrong with you? You don't take your fourteen year old sister to the Underworld! I don't give a damn how powerful any of you are!" She hit the both of them on the back of their heads and Phoebe reached forward to wrap her arms around the fiery Halliwell.

"Okay… No need for violence." She said in a soothing voice and Piper huffed loudly.

"I am not a child, Phoebe! And I think I have the right to reprimand my children for such a crazy act! Imagine if it were your girls!"

"Yes, but it's not. So let's allow them to redeem themselves before we offer up any harsh punishments, okay?" Piper glared at Phoebe's bright smile and then sighed heavily, but Chris, ever the risky one, stepped forward.

"We couldn't have gone to any of you. You were nowhere around!" He stated and looked to his parents for answers.

"Maybe we should tell them _why _you all were asked to attend Hogwarts." Dumbledore spoke up from his quiet place in the back.

"What do you mean, _why_?" Chris asked.

"A few weeks before we came to Hogwarts I was having a premonition. Well, lots of different ones, and they all seemed to involve the same thing." Phoebe said.

"Involve what?" Wyatt asked.

Phoebe turned to Harry and gave him an almost apologetic look. "You."

Harry, forgetting his anger at Melinda, looked confused. "Me?"

"Yes. I didn't know who you were. I just saw glimpses of you and nothing really made sense. Until I saw a letter that read 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry', and I knew that was the closest I could get to finding out why I was having these premonitions." Phoebe explained.

"She came to me a few days before Albus did." Leo gestured to the older Headmaster. "I was just about to set up a meeting with him when—" Leo looked to Dumbledore to finish explaining.

"I had just become aware of the events at the Quidditch World Cup." He looked to Ron, "Your father had mentioned to me that someone besides Voldemort's old followers had been in attendance that night."

"The demons." Melinda finished. Dumbledore nodded.

"Wait, so you knew that demons were coming over here? Why didn't you tell us anything?" Melinda questioned her father.

"Why didn't you tell us about your premonition?" Leo asked back.

Wyatt understood his family's reasoning. "You wanted to protect us."

"Not only that, but we didn't want you three to worry." Paige added.

"But I guess now we do, don't we? Since Voldemort is really back—" Chris started but was cut off by Melinda.

"Not only that, but we've got a new high power in the Underworld. Someone smart enough to capture me and keep you all from finding us."

"That's not good." Piper conceded.

"Now, we need to focus on keeping Harry safe. Voldemort will be coming after him, and we need to be ready." Melinda told her family.

"No." Harry said firmly. Everyone in the room turned to look at him but he only had eyes for Melinda. "I don't need any kind of protection. And I don't need any more things being hidden from me." He told her angrily. He quickly walked out of the room, Padfoot following behind.

"Harry! Wait!" Melinda got off the bed and was going to follow her but was stopped as she felt a hand on her wrist. She turned and found her Aunt Phoebe staring at her.

"Don't. He needs some time to himself." Phoebe pulled her niece into a gentle hug, whispering to her, "He's confused, tired, shaken up but mainly hurt because you kept all this from him." Melinda sighed but nodded. It was times like these when she was thankful for her Aunt's empathy power.

"We'll go talk to him." Ron said, followed out by Hermione. With everything that was being revealed, Melinda had forgotten they were there. After they left, only the Halliwells and Dumbledore were remaining.

"Regardless, she's right, Phoebe." Paige said. "Now that this… alliance has been formed between Voldemort and Mariea, we're going to need to be kept tightly knit with the Wizarding world."

"And Harry." Melinda added. "Whether he likes it or not. How can we do that, anyways? It's not like we can add security to Hogwarts without making the students feel threatened, or that anyone of us can attend."

"Actually Miss Halliwell that is where you'd be wrong." Melinda looked up to find Dumbledore looking at her and walking forward. Apparently it was his turn to discuss what had been hidden that year.

"Your parents and I had met before. Specifically on your eleventh birthday." Everyone besides Leo and Piper looked surprised.

"Why?" Melinda asked, looking at her parents.

Piper exhaled and looked down, "Because we needed to discuss why you wouldn't be attending Hogwarts."

"Wait—what?"

"I needed to discuss with you parents the possibility of you attending Hogwarts, because honestly it was something that had never been done before." Dumbledore explained.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Melinda's hands were gesturing wildly in front of her. "I can't even do… their kind of magic."

"Yes, you can." Leo walked to stand behind his wife. "We just never thought it was good for you to attend another school to learn even more magic when you were still coming into your powers. It was better for you to be with us than to learn wand magic."

"But…how? I mean, wouldn't I need some kind of…" She was faltering, refusing to believe there was even _more _magic that was bottled up inside of her. "…something…?

"Not necessarily. Take Ms. Granger for example. Her whole family is muggleborns, and yet she is a witch. It's as you've told Mr. Potter, if a person is meant to wield a wand, then they will." The elder Professor gently told her.

Melinda's head was spinning from all the information she was receiving. She didn't even know what to say or how to react to anything. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, but it was useless. She didn't even know what to be feeling at the moment.

"You have always been and will always be welcome at Hogwarts, Melinda." She gave the man an incredulous look. She stood up and walked through the small crowd of people, heading for the doors. Wyatt and Chris tried to follow her, to make sure she was okay, but Phoebe held them back.

"Don't. She's overwhelmed right now. She just needs to clear her head and think some things through." She told them, watching where her niece had left.

The boys glanced at one another before Chris asked out aloud, "So what does that mean? Is she going to be attending here?"

"She'll want to keep an eye on Harry." Piper reasoned. "And we're going to need someone here from our side as well. Evidently since the demons are allying with the death eaters, we will be allying ourselves with Harry." She turned to look at Albus, "You can count on that."

"And I will take excellent care of her. She'll be safe at Hogwarts." He promised her.

"Wait, so Melinda_ is_ coming here?" Wyatt asked. Chris rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, staring at his older brother. Wyatt looked at him and then nodded quickly, exhaling slowly and burying his hands into his pockets.

"Right, of course. Harry's here. Why wouldn't she want to stay here to keep an eye on him?" He bounced back on the balls of his feet and Chris shook his head at him.

* * *

**A/N Oh no! Only one chapter left! Which is good because mentally I've already started planning what I'm going to start writing :) So any other suggestions you wanna try and squeeze in?**

**Thanks very much to those that have reviewed and continue to follow and favorite!  
**

**And, of course, thanks very much to JayFireweaver who has been helping me edit these latest chapters!  
**


	17. Alliances

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs either to the creators of Charmed or HP.**

* * *

**A/N: Here is the final chapter to '_Her Magic Forms a Flame'_! (Thanks to JayFireweaver for being my beta for this chapter!)  
**

Alliances

Melinda was currently situated in the Great Hall in between her brothers. Wyatt was holding her hand as everyone seated themselves for a memorial in honor of Cedric Diggory. She had not seen Harry since he stormed out of the Hospital Wing yesterday, but she was going to find him after the memorial because everyone was departing Hogwarts later. But right now she wasn't focused on that. She looked around the now gloomy room, decorated with black banners. Every person from each school was in attendance to honor the lost student.

"Today, we acknowledge a really terrible loss." Melinda looked up as Dumbledore started to speak from his seat at the front of the hall. "Cedric Diggory was, as you all know, exceptionally hard working, infinitely fair minded and a fierce, fierce friend."

"Now I think, therefore, you have the right to know exactly how he died." He paused before stepping up to his podium. "You see, Cedric Diggory was murdered, by Lord Voldemort." Everyone let out loud gasps at the name.

Melinda let her head drop and closed her eyes, being greeted by the reminder of Cedric's dead body. She grasped Wyatt's hand tighter as she felt her eyes start to water. She had been thinking about it over and over again, thinking about how she could have been just a little earlier to the Graveyard, or a little smarter in figuring out what was wrong, she could have saved the older Hufflepuff. It wasn't her first time losing an innocent, and it sadly wouldn't be her last, but that didn't make it any less painful.

"Now the pain we all feel at this dreadful loss reminds me and reminds us, while we may come from different languages and speak in different tongues our hearts beat as one. In light of recent events, the bonds of friendship we made this year will be more important than ever. Remember that and Cedric Diggory will not have died in vain…"

* * *

She walked past the throngs of talking students and smiled at a few she knew from the various schools. She walked down the halls until the noise around her had quieted down and she found herself leaning against the balcony's stone wall, allowing the breeze to brush over her.

She stood in silence for a moment, hoping and praying that her brothers would be able to come through for her again. After a few more moments, she heard footsteps and turned to find Harry standing awkwardly before her. She turned back around to look at the lake.

"I was afraid you wouldn't show." She said. She looked down and let out a small smile as she felt him move to stand next to her.

"I didn't really have much of a bloody choice, did I?" He answered huffily. "Your brothers were threatening me with all sorts of spells and potions if I didn't come meet you before you left."

Her smile widened as she mentally sent a thanks to her brothers. Harry had still been avoiding her and she understood perfectly well why he had. She had held things back from her best friend. But she needed to talk to him about very important matters, and she couldn't very well do that while she was in a completely different country.

Her face became somber, and she took a few breaths before talking with open hearted sincerity.

"I'm really sorry, Harry. I never meant to lie to you."

Harry turned to face her and was about to reply when he saw her serious façade change. "Technically I never actually _lied_," She stated, "I just didn't tell you everything." She smiled happily at him and Harry's facial expression was stunned before he scoffed and looked away from her.

"Still the same concept." Harry said. They were quiet for a few moments, lulling into a comfortable silence. Distantly, they could hear the chatter of the students bidding goodbye to their new foreign friends.

"I should've done more. No… I could've done more." The boy looked up to find Melinda looking evenly out into the lake. She was still and when Harry looked closer, he could see that her eyes were a bit glossy.

"Here I am, this supposedly all powerful witch, and I can't even manage to rescue my best friend from a trap." Harry moved closer to her and hesitantly placed a hand on her arm. If he were being honest, crying girls were something he couldn't handle. He understood what she was going through, because they had experienced the same thing, but still... a crying girl was a crying girl.

"It wasn't your fault, Melinda." He told her. "You were caught off guard. No one knew what was going to happen." He was surprised when she wrenched her arm out of his reach and she whirled around to fully face him. "That doesn't change the fact that I did crap to help Harry! I shouldn't have been that pathetic!" She ran her hand furiously through her hair, but she wasn't done ranting yet. "I could've done a lot more than cower in that cage! And that… that _bitch _Mariea was just taunting me! When I see her, I swear I'll—"

Harry had gripped her shoulders to stop her talking. For one reason, he was a bit worried that something would explode or that he might accidently catch fire had she kept it up, but he also needed to get something very important through to her.

"You being there helped me more than you could think, Melinda Halliwell." She stared doubtfully at him before crossing her arms, but he still kept his hold on her.

"You have no idea how scared I was. Voldemort was one thing, but Mariea? And demons?" Harry shook his head. "I knew nothing about that."

He dropped his arms and then looked apologetic as he remembered another reason why he had been avoiding her. "If anyone should apologize, it should be me… I should have never called you there. If you want to blame anyone for being trapped, it should be me." He crossed his arms as he leaned against the balcony and continued to look out even when he felt the presence of Melinda's arm go around his shoulder.

"If you were to be in trouble like that again… Would you call out my name?" She asked him, softly. Harry could feel her gaze on him as he thought about her question.

"No." He answered. Harry didn't want to see her get hurt anymore because of him. He felt the arm around his shoulder pull back a bit and immediately shouted when he felt her hand swiftly smack him in the back of the head. He pulled back from her and put his hand to his now throbbing head.

"What was _that _for? It hurt!" Harry shouted.

"Good! Maybe it'll knock some sense into you!" Melinda shot back. Harry was looking at her for an explanation, and she stood with her arms crossed as she gave it. "I've dealt with and seen a lot more than you have, Potter, so if you think for one second that you should leave me back to worry instead of stand by your side and fight? You're wrong!"

She stalked forward and (out of instinct) he walked back to distance them, afraid she'd hit him again. She let out a sigh and he slowly walked towards her. He stood idly in front of her when she had calmed down and leaned backwards against the balcony. She looked down at her clasped hands before looking somewhere past him, contemplating something seriously.

"Dark and dangerous times lie ahead, Harry." She stated. Harry listened to her as she carefully expressed her next thought. "There's going to come a time when we have to choose between what is right and what is easy." Melinda thought about what she had just told him. It was something her Aunt had told her a long time ago, she hadn't remembered the occasion it was said under, but she remembered the seriousness that had come along with it. She looked up to meet Harry's green eyes.

"Things are going to be changing, Harry." She spoke with a calm and matter-of-fact tone. "With everything that happened at the Graveyard, we can be certain that we haven't seen the last of Voldemort and Mariea. Purposefully or not, they're linking our two worlds together. They've made it very clear that they're siding with one another. So I need you to know that my family will be helping in whichever way we can. Because of that… I need you to keep your promise."

Harry looked at her for a moment before he remembered which promise she was talking about. He gave a small smile before he told her, "I thought I told you I wouldn't?"

Not missing a beat, she replied, "And I thought you figured out what would happen should you refuse?" A wide smile graced her face as Harry lifted his hand and gingerly touched the back of his head where she had hit him.

"Even if I have to," Melinda started saying, when he had refused to respond, "I'll put a spell on you so that even when you have the slightest paper-cut… I will come to you." Harry shook his head at her stubbornness, before muttering, "You and your brothers are the same. Threatening with the same spells and potions."

Harry was curious for a moment. "What if you're busy? Say you're in class? Isn't there a time difference between us?"

Melinda gave a sly smile before looping her arm through his and leading him towards the students who were getting ready to depart Hogwarts.

"Maybe you'll see a bit more of me next year? Who knows?" Melinda responded. They walked towards where Ron and Hermione were standing and she released Harry to give her brunette friend a tight hug.

"Oh, Melinda! I'm going to miss you! Promise you'll call me?" Hermione asked as she released her American friend.

"Of course!" She responded happily. "You can even come over for a bit before you head to the Weasley's." Melinda told her.

Ron went up to hug her and said, "You should come over to the Burrow for a while too, before we all have to head back to school. Mum won't mind, in fact I think she would be rather impressed to meet you." Ron told her. She gave him a smile and nodded before moving on to the next person she had to leave.

Walking in front of Harry, she wrapped her arms around his neck and he did the same to her waist, holding her tight, taking in the flowery scent she seemed to always have on her. They stood like that for a while, before a cough was heard from beside them. They let go to find Ron with an amused expression on his face and Hermione trying to hold back a smile. Confused by their friends' reactions, they chose to ignore them

"Thank you. For everything you did." Harry told her, and she knew he was talking about not only the Graveyard, but the rest of the year.

She gave him a sweet smile before hearing her name being shouted behind her. They all looked to see Wyatt calling out to her, before he waved to her three friends. They all waved back and Melinda looked at the three people in front of her.

"I was glad we came out here. Even if it was for an unfortunate circumstance, I'm glad I met you all." She looked at all of them, lingering a bit on Harry. She smiled and headed back towards the Magic School group.

The three visiting schools were led through a path of Hogwarts students who were cheering for their foreign friends. The Durmstrang men then marched to their ship and the Beauxbatons ladies walked to their carriages, however the Magic School group stayed in the courtyard. At the head of the group were the Halliwells who were bidding goodbye to the Professors. After that they all joined hands, apart from Chris and Melinda. Wyatt and Paige orbed the students back to Magic School, with Chris and Melinda following not too far behind them. Before leaving, she found Harry, Ron and Hermione looking at her and gave them a nod and smile, before she was caught up in a swirl of a grayish green breeze, a few leaves on the ground caught in the action swirling around her, and just like that, the Halliwells were gone.

"Can we never have a quiet year?" Ron asked aloud as they moved away from the chatting Hogwarts students. His friends laughed at his rhetorical question.

"You can't say that meeting Melinda was a bad thing, Ronald." Hermione said. She looked at the Beauxbatons carriage flying overhead and asked, "I wonder when we'll see Melinda, again?"

Harry smiled to himself remembering how his wand had reacted to Melinda and answered, "I reckon we'll see her again. Maybe a bit more often than we think."

* * *

Surrounded by dirt columns and torch-lit pathways, the demon watched as the Dark Lord shot down demon by demon in pure angst. She stalked forward confidently, but cautiously, as she saw him nowhere near stopping his vanquishes. "My lord, perhaps it is prudent to not diminish the number of demons that are in our circle."

Voldemort swiftly turned around, fury contorted in his face. He shot a spell at her, but she merely flamed out. Expecting this, he rapidly turned around, grasping her neck as she flamed back in. She coughed and placed a hand to his wrist trying to pry out of his tight grip, "My lord…" She choked out. However, Voldemort wasn't hearing any of it.

Still gripping her neck, he whispered in a deadly voice, "How could you let her escape? The boy wouldn't have been able to do much, but the Halliwells will soon be fast on our trail…  
He gripped her neck tighter, "For your sake… they better not catch on to what I'm doing."

He threw her back and she landed roughly on the dirt floor of the Underworld. She stood up, slowly, regaining her composure.

"I assure you she is nothing we won't be able to handle. Leave her to me." She told him, instantly becoming irritated as she remembered how the Halliwell had made her look foolish. She clenched her hands in anger and had a murderous look in her eye as the memory of the girl escaping from her supposed to be fool-proof trap played in her mind.

"You better take care of her, Mariea." Voldemort demanded in a cold voice. "I have plans with Potter and the Wizarding and Wiccan worlds. If you allow her to interfere with either of my plans, you will deeply regret it."

* * *

**I wonder what Voldemort has planned...?**

**Thanks very much to everyone who has favorited, alerted and reviewed this story! I thank you all very much for taking the time to read this :)  
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**There WILL be a sequel, in case any one didn't know. I haven't figured out the title yet, so if you want to shoot me a possibility, PM or review. And if you didn't read my other AN I will be going on a vacation with friends tomorrow and won't be back til late Saturday. So the sequel will be up in exactly a week! I'll be sure to let yall know when it is up :D  
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**Oh, and some people have been asking me about Harry gaining Wiccan powers... I don't want to disappoint anyone, but Harry will NOT be receiving any extra powers. When I had envisioned the story, Harry never had Charmed powers, so again, sorry if some of you were looking forward to that, but it won't be happening :(  
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**Anyways, hope you all enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next installment! Leave a review for what you thought about this chapter or even the overall story! If you haven't reviewed but have been following along, please let me know your thoughts :)  
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**See you all soon!  
**


	18. Update

Update!

Hey, just letting everyone know that the sequel has been posted! It is titled, 'Her Magic Leads the Storm' and the summary is provided below:

'_While powerful forces are building quietly in the Underworld, the Wizarding World refuses to acknowledge that Voldemort is back with a bigger group of followers. The Wiccan World knows the Halliwells will be their saviors... but the wizards? They're starting to think that the Halliwells should've stayed in San Francisco where they belong.'_

I'm hoping yall decide to continue reading the series!


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